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LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 


EDITED  BY 

THOMAS  FITZHUGH 

Professor  of  Latin  in  thz  University  of  Virginia 


GIFT  OF 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 


EDITED  BY 

THOMAS  FITZHUGH 

Professor  of  Latin  in  the  University  of  Virginia 


Victrix  causa  Deis  placuit  sed  victa  Catoni 


THE  LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  VIRGINIA 

1917 


cr\ 


- 


Georgii  Longi 
Linguarum  Antiquarum 

in 

Universitate  Litterarum  Virginiensi 
Primi  Professoris 

in 
Memoriam 


3C0167 


The  Editor  of  these  letters,  which  are  here  reproduced  at  the 
request  of  the  Library  Committee  from  the  Alumni  Bulletin  for 
October,  1916,  and  January  and  April,  1917,  as  a  memorial  to 
our  first  Professor  of  Ancient  Languages,  desires  to  express  his 
indebtedness  to  Mr.  Herbert  Putnam,  Librarian  of  Congress, 
and  to  Mr.  John  S.  Patton,  Librarian  of  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, for  valuable  and  even  contributory  assistance  in  the  per- 
formance of  his  task. 

University  of  Virginia,  May  i,  1917. 


Letters  of  George  Long 


I.  THE  SOJOURN  IN  AMERICA. 

In  March  of  1925  one  hundred  years  will  have  passed  since 
the  doors  of  the  University  of  Virginia  were  thrown  open  for  the 
reception  of  students.  The  men  of  the  University,  wherever 
they  live,  are  everywhere  awaking  to  the  rapid  approach  of  the 
momentous  anniversary,  and  historical  interest  is  now  alert  to 
discover  and  preserve  every  last  hidden  and  unpublished  record 
surviving  from  the  generation  of  our  grandfathers.  With  the 
passing  of  our  generation  the  last  thread  of  direct  historical  tra- 
dition from  the  times  of  Jefferson  will  have  been  severed  forever, 
and  historians  of  the  University  will  strive  with  the  aid  of  the 
sources  transmitted  to  them  to  attain  a  scientific  knowledge  of 
those  determining  events  which  explain  the  origin  and  early  his- 
tory of  the  institution,  and  to  portray  the  story  of  its  life  in  its 
outer  course  and  inner  connection.  Ours  is  the  sacred  duty  to 
cherish  the  bond  that  is  to  bind  our  age  with  that  of  our  children 
and  of  our  children's  children,  recording  before  it  is  too  late  the 
precious  relics  of  a  passing  tradition,  and  remembering  too  that 
the  interest  which  attaches  to  great  events  and  far-reaching  his- 
torical and  spiritual  influences  communicates  itself  even  to  mat- 
ters and  incidents  of  otherwise  trivial  importance,  and  justifies  us 
in  rescuing  from  oblivion  and  recording  each  newly  discovered 
episode  in  the  life  of  the  far-away  time  to  be  read  and  learned 
with  lively  curiosity  by  those  who  shall  succeed  to  the  heritage 
of  their  fathers. 

There  are  two  sources  of  knowledge  from  which  the  historian 
may  draw  when  seeking  to  reconstruct  the  life  of  a  past  era :  the 
one,  the  objective  monuments  and  written  records  of  the  time; 
the  other,  the  ever  sparser  growing  personal  recollections  of  those 
who  were  contemporaries  and  actors  in  the  spiritual  drama.  The 
historical  recollections  of  the  individual  are  mainly  confined  to 
those  events  with  which  he  was  personally  acquainted.  In  the 
best  case  he  may  learn  from  his  grandparents  and  transmit  to 


8  "  '•  i#f  *ER&;  OF  ' 


his  children  the  memory  of  things  and  events  separated  at  most 
by  two  or  three  generations  from  the  present.  Such  is  precisely 
the  position  which  our  generation  occupies  with  reference  to  the 
beginnings  of  University  life  and  influence  in  Virginia  and  the 
South.  The  historian  of  today  has  the  noble  architectural  orig- 
inals still  standing  on  the  broad  ridge  where  Jefferson  placed 
them.  He  has  the  first  catalogues  of  the  University  and  such 
published  works  of  its  professors  as  have  survived  the  wear  and 
tear  of  time.  And,  finally,  he  has  at  his  command  the  contem- 
porary records  of  the  Jeffersonian  era,  whether  in  public  docu- 
ments or  private  correspondence.  But  besides  these  known  and 
published  sources  of  a  truly  scientific  history  of  the  institution, 
there  still  survives  hidden  away  in  unopened  and  unknown  fam- 
ily archives  some  later  or  even  contemporary  correspondence  of 
those  who  played  an  important  part  in  this  classic  drama  of 
American  education- 

One  such  precious  find  within  our  memory  was  that  of  the  Gil- 
mer  Manuscripts,*  reported  on  by  Dr.  Herbert  B.  Adams  in  his 
famous,  and  now  classic,  monograph  on  Jefferson  and  the  Uni- 
versity of  Virginia  (U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  Circular  of  In- 
formation No.  1,  1888,  p.  206)  as  follows: 

Inquiring  of  Col.  Charles  S.  Venable,  chairman  of  the  faculty  of 
the  University  of  Virginia,  for  original  manuscript  materials  relating 
to  that  institution,  the  writer  first  learned  of  the  existence  of  orig- 
inal and  unpublished  letters  written  by  Thomas  Jefferson  to  Francis 
W.  Gilmer.  Upon  application  to  the  present  owner  of  the  letters 
in  question,  John  Gilmer,  Esq.,  of  Chatham,  Pittsylvania  County,  Va., 
the  writer  was  courteously  intrusted  with  the  entire  bound  collection, 
which  includes  not  only  letters  from  Jefferson,  but  also  some  from 
Madison  and  from  the  gentlemen  in  England  to  whom  Gilmer-  had 
letters  of  introduction.  There  are  letters  of  advice  or  suggestion 
from  Major  John  Cartwright,  Dugald  Stewart,  Benjamin  Rush,  Lord 
Brougham,  Lord  Teignmouth,  Lord  Forbes,  Dr.  Samuel  Parr,  Henry 
Drury  of  Harrow,  Prof.  John  Leslie  of  Edinburgh,  Peter  Barlow  of 
the  Royal  Military  Academy,  and  many  others.  It  is  very  interesting 
to  trace  in  this  correspondence  the  lines  of  personal  influence,  inquiry, 


*This  bound  volume  of  283  autograph  letters  and  copies  of  letters, 
inscribed  Letters  to  F.  W.  Gilmer,  has  been  acquired  by  Librarian  Pat- 
ton  for  the  University,  and  lies  on  exhibition  in  a  show-case  in  the 
Library.  Reference  to  these  originals  will  enable  the  student  to  con- 
trol the  accuracy  of  such  sporadic  extracts  as  have  from  time  to 
time  come  into  print. 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG  9 

and  recommendation  which  led  gradually  to  the  selection  and  en- 
gagement of  a  faculty  for  the  University  of  Virginia.  Here  are  the 
letters  written  by  Thomas  Hewett  Key,  George  Long,  Dr.  Dunglison, 
George  Blaettermann,  and  various  other  gentlemen  with  whom  nego- 
tiations were  opened.  Much  interesting  light  is  thrown  by  the  Gilmer 
manuscripts  upon  the  beginnings  of  the  University  of  Virginia.  The 
collection,  which  is  well  preserved  in  a  large  volume,  quarto,  came 
into  the  writer's  hands  too  late  to  make  any  use  of  its  contents  in 
preparing  the  body  of  the  present  monograph,  but  he  has  appended 
in  foot-notes  to  the  chapter  on  the  first  professors  certain  selections 
from  the  Gilmer  correspondence.  By  the  consent  of  the  owner  of 
the  manuscripts,  the  editor  has  committed  the  entire  collection  to 
one  of  his  students  from  Virginia,  William  P.  Trent,  A.  M.,  for  fur- 
ther use.  There  are  some  very  interesting  letters  from  George  Tick- 
nor,  written  in  Boston  and  at  Goettingen;  also  several  communica- 
tions from  the  Abbe  Jose  Correa  de  Serra,  Dupont  de  Nemours,  and 
a  great  mass  of  unpublished  letters  from  William  Wirt.  The  dis- 
covery of  the  Gilmer  collection,  which  has  fortunately  survived  the 
ravages  of  war,  is  only  another  illustration  of  the  importance  and 
practical  value  of  American  students  utilizing  academic  connections 
and  the  historical  environment  for  the  prosecution  of  their  original 
studies.  Probably  the  Gilmer  collection  is  but  one  of  many  family 
collections  of  important  papers  which  might  be  made  useful  to  his- 
torical science  in  the  hands  of  students.  The  field  of  American  edu- 
cational history  is  comparatively  unbroken,  and  it  is  not  unlikely 
that  many  other  interesting  materials  [exist]  and  discoveries  may  yet  be 
made.  It  is  the  ploughing  of  new  lands  that  unearths  interesting 
relics  of  a  forgotten  race,  and  it  will  prove  no  ungrateful  task  to  fol- 
low in  the  track  of  educational  pioneers  like  Thomas  Jefferson  and 
Francis  Gilmer. 

The  results  of  Professor  Trent's  interest  in  the  matter  were, 
first,  his  own  valuable  monograph  English  Culture  in  Virginia: 
A  Study  of  the  Gilmer  Letters  and  an  Account  of  the  English 
Professors  obtained  by  Jefferson  for  the  University  of  Virginia 
(Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies  in  Historical  and  Political 
Science,  Seventh  Series  V-VI,  1889),  and  secondly,  the  discovery 
of  a  second*  volume  of  Gilmer  letters,  which  he  found  to  be 
even  more  precious  than  the  first.  Professor  Trent  reports  the 
new  find  in  his  Introduction  (p.  7)  : 

Being  much  pressed  by  his  professional  and  other  duties,  Dr. 
Adams  handed  me  this  voluminous  correspondence  with  the  request 


*It  is   devoutly  to  be  wished  that  this  volume  too  may   soon   lie 
side  by  side  with  its  fellow  among  the  treasures  of  our  Library. 


10  BETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 

that  I  would  examine  it  and  express  an  opinion  as  to  its  value  with 
regard  to  that  period  of  the  University's  history  on  which  he  was 
specially  engaged.  I  did  examine  it  with  great  care,  and  found  that, 
although  it  did  not  bear  directly  on  the  field  oPlnvestigation  Dr. 
Adams  had  chosen,  it  nevertheless  opened  up  a  new  field  of  hardly 
inferior  interest.  Upon  this  report  Dr.  Adams  and  Mr.  Gilmer  were 
kind  enough  to  intrust  the  letters  to  me  that  I  might  complete  a 
study,  the  outlines  of  which  were  already  developing  themselves  in 
my  own  mind.  In  a  letter  to  my  mother  I  alluded  to  the  fact  that 
this  task  had  been  confided  to  me.  She  at  once  wrote  me  that  she 
was  certain  another  volume  of  a  similar  character  was  in  existence, 
and  that  she  would  endeavor  to  obtain  it  for  me. 

Her  statement  proved  true  and  the  companion  volume  is  now  in 
my  hands  through  the  kindness  of  Mrs.  Emma  Breckinridge,  of 
"Grove  Hill,"  Botetourt  County,  Virginia.  Mrs.  Breckinridge  is  a 
sister  of  Mr.  John  Gilmer  and  a  daughter  of  Peachy  Gilmer,  the  eld- 
est brother  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  This  second  volume  is 
even  more  invaluable  than  the  first  as  it  contains  all  of  Gilmer's  own 
letters  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  etc.,  and  also  throws  many  valuable  side 
lights  upon  the  internal  history  of  Virginia  for  the  period  from  1815 
to  1825. 

To  seek  to  gather  together  as  far  as  possible  and  publish  in 
our  archives  all  such  private  or  unpublished  material  bear- 
ing upon  the  history  of  the  School  of  Latin  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Virginia  was  suggested  to  my  mind  by  the  perusal  of  an 
autograph  letter  of  Jefferson  framed  under  glass  and  suspended 
on  the  walls  of  the  Administration  Building  on  East  Lawn : 

FROM  JEFFERSON  TO  JUDGE  BLAND. 

Monticello,  June  26,  '21. 
Dear  Sir: 

Your  favor  of  the  18th  was  received  yesterday.  The  state  of  our 
University  is  such  that  we  cannot  say  when  it  will  be  opened.  The 
buildings  for  the  professors  and  students  will  all  be  finished  the  en- 
suing winter.  But  their  erection  will  have  left  us  very  largely  in- 
debted, and  if  to  be  paid  out  of  the  annuity  settled  on  it,  it  will  be 
many  years  before  it  will  be  free.  It  is  believed  however  that  the 
legislature  will  remit  the  debt.  If  they  do,  the  institution  will  be 
opened  one  year  after  the  remission,  as  that  time  will  be  necessary 
to  collect  our  professors  from  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  as  we  shall 
receive  none  but  of  the  first  order  of  science  in  their  several  lines. 
Every  branch  of  science,  at  present  thought  useful,  will  be  taught; 
for  which  purpose  10  professors  will  be  allowed.  Every  person  who 
can  read,  write  and  cipher  will  be  free  to  learn  what  he  chuses  and 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG  11 

what  he  can,  without  tramelling  him  with  any  prescribed  course.  But 
we  shall  not  teach  elementary  classics.  In  that  line  we  shall  give  only  the 
last  critical  finishing  to  those  who  have  been  of  the  highest  class  of  the  or- 
dinary academies*  Board  in  the  neighboring  village  of  Charlottesville 
is  at  present  about  125  D.  Tuition  fees  will  be  about  40  or  50  D. 
Should  the  next  session  of  the  legislature  remit  our  debt,  the  insti- 
tution will  open  immediately  after  the  Christmas  of  the  next  year 
1822,  which  I  am  in  hopes  would  be  in  time  for  your  son,  whom  we 
should  be  very  happy  to  receive,  and  I  shall  with  pleasure  render  him 
any  service  I  can.  I  salute  you  with  great  esteem  and  respect. 
Judge  Bland. 

TH.  JEFFERSON. 

Three  years  later  in  1824  we  find  Mr.  Gilmer  in  Europe  nego- 
tiating with  prospective  professors  for  the  new  University  which 
was  to  open  its  doors  early  in  1825.  "One  of  the  finest  repre- 
sentatives of  English  scholarship,"  says  Dr.  Adams  whose  data 
I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  slightly  correcting  and  supplementing, 
(Jefferson  and  the  University  of  Va.,  p.  114),  "secured  by  Mr. 
Gilmer  was  Mr.  George  Long  (1800-1879),  a  graduate  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Oxford  [Cambridge].  He  was  an  excellent  type  of 
Oxford  [Cambridge]  classical  culture  and  became  the  founder  of 
the  school  of  ancient  languages,  for  the  cultivation  of  which  the 
University  of  Virginia  has  remained  distinguished,  from  the  three 
years'  [four  sessions']  service  of  Long  (1825-1828)  and  the 
longer  term  of  Gessner  Harrison  down  to  the  regimes  of  Gilder- 
sleeve  (1856-1876),  Price,  and  Wheeler  in  Greek,  and  [Coleman 
and]  Peters  (since  1865)  in  Latin." 

Fortunately  for  our  present  purpose,  Dr.  Adams  has  reprinted 
the  very  letter  in  which  Gilmer  under  commission  from  Jefferson 
invites  Long  to  come  to  Virginia  and  inaugurate  in  her  new  Uni- 
versity the  school  of  Ancient  Languages  :f 

FRANCIS  w.  GILMER  TO  GEORGE  LONG  (LONDON,  AUGUST  21,  1824.) 

I  am  sure  the  nature  of  this  letter  will  be  a  sufficient  excuse  to  Mr. 
L.  for  his  receiving  such  an  one  from  a  perfect  stranger. 

The  State  of  Virginia  has  for  six  years  been  engaged  in  establish- 
ing a  university  on  a  splendid  scheme.  The  homes  are  now  finished, 


*The  italics  are  editorial,  not  original,  in  this  single  connection. 
^Jeff.  and  the  Univ.,  p.  114;  where  Dr.  Adams'  reading  seems  wrong 
I  have  followed  the  original  copy. 


12  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  I/)NG 

a  revenue  for  the  support  of  the  professors,  etc.,  is  appropriated,  and 
I  have  come  to  England  to  engage  professors  in  some  of  the  branches 
in  which  Europe  is  still  before  us.  I  have  heard  your  qualifications 
as  professor  of  Latin  and  Greek  highly  commended,  and  wish  to 
know  whether  such  an  appointment  would  be  agreeable  to  you.  My 
powers  are  absolute,  and  whatever  engagement  you  make  with  me 
is  binding  on  the  University  without  further  ratification. 

You  will  have  (1)  a  commodious  house,  garden,  etc.,  for  a  family 
residence,  entirely  to  yourself,  free  of  rent;  (2)  a  salary  of  $1500  per 
annum  paid  by  the  University,  and  tuition  fees  from  $50  to  $25  from 
each  pupil,  according  to  the  number  of  professors  he  attends;  (3) 
your  tenure  of  office  is  such  that  you  can  be  removed  only  by  the 
concurrence  of  five  out  of  seven,  and  all  the  first  men  in  our  country, 
with  Mr.  Jefferson  at  the  head. 

Mr.  Key  suggested  that  your  being  obliged  to  be  in  Cambridge 
next  July  might  be  an  obstacle.  That  may  be  removed  by  a  stipula- 
tion that  in  that  year  1825,  you  shall  have  liberty  to  come  to  Eng- 
land, for  which  reasonable  time  shall  be  allowed,  so  as  to  make  your 
visit  to  Cambridge  certain. 

You  will  be  required  not  to  teach  a  mere  grammar  school,  but  to 
instruct  young  men  somewhat  advanced  in  reading  the  Latin  and 
Greek  classics.  Hebrew  is  also  included,  but  there  will  be  no  oc- 
casion for  it,  I  think,  and  you  could  easily  learn  enough  for  what 
may  be  required.  You  should  explain  the  history  and  geography  of 
the  two  famous  ancient  nations  as  illustrative  of  their  literature,  etc. 

The  whole  is  now  only  waiting  for  my  return  to  go  into  full  and  ac- 
tive operation.  You  will  see,  therefore,  the  necessity  of  making  an  early 
decision.  I  should  like  the  professors  to  sail  October  or  November, 
and  shall  thank  you  for  an  intimation  of  your  wishes  on  the  subject 
as  soon  as  convenient. 

Yours  very  respectfully,  etc., 

FRANCIS  W. 


Professor  Trent  has  printed  in  full  what  he  characterizes  as 
Long's  manly  letter  in  reply  to  Gilmer's  offer  (Hnglish  Culture 
in  Virginia,  p.  90)  .  The  letter  is  No.  67  of  the  autograph  collec- 
tion: 

GEORGE  IvONG  TO  FRANCIS  W.  GII.MER  (  LIVERPOOL,  AUGUST  24,  1824). 

The  subject  of  your  letter  renders  an  apology  for  writing  to  me 
quite  unnecessary;  I  am  pleased  with  the  plain  and  open  manner  in 
which  you  express  yourself  and  encouraged  by  this  I  shall  freely 
state  to  you  all  my  thoughts  on  the  subject,  and  make  such  enquiries 
as  the  case  seems  to  me  to  admit.  The  nature  of  the  powers  with 
which  you  are  vested  gives  me  full  confidence  in  your  proposals,  and 


OF  GEORGE  LONG  13 

from  Mr.  Key's  letter  I  am  led  to  expect  that  all  information  you 
give  me  will  bear  the  same  marks  as  the  communication  I  have  al- 
ready received.  The  peculiar  circumstances  of  my  situation  induce 
me  to  throw  off  all  reserve,  and  to  trouble  you  with  more  words  than 
otherwise  would  be  necessary.  About  two  years  since,  I  lost  my  re- 
maining parent,  a  mother  whose  care  and  attention  amply  compen- 
sated for  the  loss  of  a  father  and  no  inconsiderable  property  in 
the  West  India  Islands.  By  this  unfortunate  occurrence  I  have  the 
guardianship  of  a  younger  brother,  and  two  younger  sisters  thrown 
upon  me — with  numerous  difficulties,  which  it  is  useless  to  mention 
because  nobody  but  myself  can  properly  judge  of  them, — and  with 
an  income  for  their  support  which  is  rapidly  diminishing  in  value.  I 
have  for  some  time  past  been  directing  my  attention  to  the  study 
of  the  law  with  the  hope  of  improving  my  fortune,  and  the  ambi- 
tion, which  I  hope  is  a  laudable  one,  of  rising  in  my  profession.  In 
truth  the  latter  is  almost  my  only  motive  for  entering  into  the  pro- 
fession, as  I  am  well  acquainted  with  the  insupportable  tedium  and 
vexation  of  the  practical  part.  But  the  obstacles  in  my  way,  tho  I 
should  consider  them  trifling  if  I  were  solely  concerned  for  myself, 
become  formidable  when  I  reflect  on  the  situation  of  my  family.  I 
wish  then  to  know  if  that  part  of  America  would  afford  an  asylum 
for  a  family  that  has  been  accustomed  to  live  in  a  respectable  man- 
ner, and  an  opportunity  for  laying  out  a  little  property  to  advantage. 

From  your  account  of  that  part  of  Virginia,  and  from  what  I  have 
learned  from  books  and  other  sources  of  information,  I  conclude  that 
new  comers  are  not  liable  to  be  carried  off  by  any  dangerous  epi- 
demic disorder. 

The  salary  attached  to  the  professorship  seems  an  adequate  sum  to 
be  secured,  but  I  wish  to  know  what  proportion  it  bears  to  the  ex- 
pense of  living — many  of  the  common  articles  of  food  I  can  imagine 
to  be  cheap  as  in  England — but  other  articles  such  as  wearing  ap- 
parel, furniture,  etc.,  I  should  conceive  to  be  dearer  than  they  are 
here.  Your  information  on  this  subject  will  supply  the  defect  in  mine. 

Is  the  University  placed  on  such  a  footing  as  to  ensure  a  permanent 
and  durable  existence,  or  is  the  scheme  so  far  an  experiment  that 
there  is  a  possibility  of  its  failing? 

Is  there  any  probability  of  the  Greek  Professor  being  enabled  to 
double  the  $1,500  dollars,  when  the  University  is  fairly  set  a  working, 
by  his  tuition  fees?  You  will  perhaps  be  surprised  at  this  question; 
I  am  not  at  all  mercenary  or  addicted  to  the  love  of  money — I  have 
reasons  for  asking  which  I  could  better  explain  in  a  personal  inter- 
view. 

Is  there  in  the  county  of  Albemarle,  or  town  of  Charlottesville, 
tolerably  agreeable  society,  such  as  would  in  some  degree  compen- 
sate for  almost  the  only  comfort  an  Englishman  would  leave  behind 
him? 


14  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  I/DNG 

What  vacations  would  the  Professor  have — and  at  what  seasons 
of  the  year — of  what  nature,  with  respect  to  time,  would  his  usual 
engagements  be — and  would  sufficient  time  be  left  for  literary  pur- 
suits, and  the  studies  connected  with  his  profession,  by  which  as 
much  might  be  effected  as  by  the  employment  more  immediately  at- 
tached to  the  situation? 

With  respect  to  my  coming  to  England  in  1825,  that  would  be  ab- 
solutely necessary.  Unless  I  take  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  next 
July,  I  forfeit  my  fellowship  which  is  at  present  the  only  means 
of  subsistence  I  have,  except  the  occupation  in  which  I  am  at  pres- 
ent engaged  of  taking  private  pupils.  Should  the  expectation  that 
I  am  induced  to  form  be  realized,  my  Fellowship  of  course  would  be 
a  small  consideration:  but  as  I  just  observed  the  settlement  of  my 
affairs  here  would  render  my  presence  necessary  in  1825. 

The  Professors,  you  tell  me,  can  only  be  removed  by  the  concur- 
ring voice  of  5  out  of  the  7  directors;  I  presume  that  inability  to 
perform  the  duties  of  the  office,  or  misconduct  would  be  the  only 
ground  on  which  such  a  removal  would  be  attempted. 

I  have  no  attachment  to  England  as  a  country;  it  is  a  delightful 
place  for  a  man  of  rank  and  property  to  live  in,  but  I  was  not  born 
in  that  enviable  station,  to  which  most  men  here  are  led  to  aspire  and 
often  in  vain.  If  comfortably  settled  therefore  in  America  I  should 
never  wish  to  leave  it. 

I  wish  to  know  what  may  be  the  expenses  of  the  voyage  and  if 
they  are  to  be  defrayed  by  the  persons  engaged — also  what  kind  of 
an  outfit  would  be  necessary,  I  mean  merely  for  a  person's  own 
convenience. 

Mr.  Key  knows  nothing  of  me  but  from  college  acquaintance:  he 
therefore  could  not  know  that  he  was  directing  you  to  a  person  who 
would  raise  so  many  difficulties,  and  make  so  many  enquiries  some 
of  which  you  may  judge  impertinent.  For  the  last  6  years  I  have 
struggled  with  pecuniary  difficulties,  and  I  am  not  yet  quite  free  from 
them:  I  have  thus  learned  at  an  early  age  to  calculate  expenses,  and 
consider  probabilities:  When  I  know  the  whole  of  a  case,  I  can  come 
to  a  determination  and  abide  by  it. 

If  you  will  favor  me  with  an  answer  as  soon  as  you  find  it  con- 
venient, I  shall  consider  it  a  great  favor — I  must  again  apologize  for 
the  freedom  with  which  I  have  expressed  myself:  when  I  have  re- 
ceived your  letter,  I  will  inform  you  of  my  determination. 

I  will  thank  you  to  inform  Mr.  Key  that  he  will  receive  a  letter 
from  me  by  the  next  post  after  that  which  brings  yours. 

I  remain  with  the  greatest  respect 

Yours,  G.  LONG. 

Please  to  direct  "George  Long,  No.  1,  King  St.,  Soho,  Liverpool. 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG  15 

To  Long's  inquiries  Mr.  Gilmer  sent  the  following  reply,  pre- 
served in  copy  as  No.  69  of  the  Letters  to  F.  W .  Gilmer: 

FRANCIS  w.  GILMER  TO  GEORGE  LONG  (OF  LIVERPOOL). 

London,  27  Aug.,  1824. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  received  your  letter  of  the  24th  yesterday  but  too  late  to  be  an- 
swered by  the  post.  Far  from  thinking  you  importunate  in  your 
questions,  I  am  glad  to  find  you  enter  on  the  matter  with  all  the 
deliberation  which  its  importance  demands,  and  I  shall  have  great 
pleasure  in  answering  every  inquiry  you  can  wish  to  make.  With 
the  utmost  candor  and  fullest  examination  on  both  sides  we  are  not 
likely  to  misunderstand  each  other.  Tho  I  regret  with  you  that  we 
cannot  have  a  personal  conference,  when  I  could  explain  to  you  more 
fully  the  whole  of  our  expensive  and  splendid  scheme. 

But  to  answer  your  inquiries  seriatim: 

"Asylum  for  family  and  opportunity  of  laying  out  property  to  ad- 
vantage." From  a  long  and  intimate  knowledge  of  Albemarle  county 
I  assure  you  I  know  no  place  in  America  where  there  is  a  more  lib- 
eral, intelligent,  hospital,  and  agreeable  society:  none,  where  respect- 
able strangers  could  receive  a  kinder  welcome,  and  going  over  as  a 
professor  as  you  will,  they  will  not  regard  you  as  a  stranger  from  the 
first. 

Your  property  you  may  on  any  day  vest  advantageously  in  the 
funds  on  fair  terms,  yielding  you  about  6  p.  c.  p.  ann.  or  in  lands 
contiguous  to  the  University  which  cannot  fail  to  rise  in  value.  Tho 
for  revenue,  I  should  prefer  the  fund. 

"Proportion  of  salary  to  expense  of  living."  Your  salary  itself  is 
more  than  enough  for  the  comfortable  support  of  yourself  and  the 
family  you  mention'  you  have  a  house  without  rent,  you  will  know 
nothing  of  the  taxes  which  grind  one  in  England.  Wearing  apparel 
except  very  fine  woolen  clothes  you  will  find  very  nearly  or  quite  as 
cheap  as  in  England  and  from  the  specimens  I  have  seen  here  the 
furniture  tho  not  as  highly  finished  or  as  rich  as  the  London,  you  may 
buy  by  waiting  the  occasion,  as  cheap,  and  at  any  time  on  moderate 
terms. 

"Permanency  of  the  University."  It  is  the  bantling  of  Mr.  Jefferson 
and  of  the  State:  too  much  money  has  been  expended  in  it  to  permit  it 
to  fail.  With  such  endowments,  with  you  and  Key  and  others  of 
enterprise  and  talent  it  cannot  fail.  It  will  grow  rapidly  into  celeb- 
rity. Mr.  Jefferson  told  me  he  had  already  applications  from  every 
part  of  the  U.  S.  to  know  when  it  would  be  open,  to  engage  places, 
etc. 

"Emoluments  from  students."  From  what  Mr.  Jefferson  told  me 
and  from  my'  own  knowledge,  I  am  sure  you  must  receive  in  fees 


16  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 

from  students  even  the  first  year,  at  least  $1,500  dollars,  and  more 
every  year  for  some  years  after. 

"Society,"  this  I  have  already  answered.  There  are  a  great  num- 
ber of  persons  well  educated,  of  good  manners,  etc.,  in  Albemarle. 

"Vacations."  These  were  not  definitely  settled  when  I  left  Vir- 
ginia nor  can  they  well' be,  till  you  all  meet.  The  vacation  I  think 
will  be  all  at  one  period,  and  not  so  long  as  at  the  English  univer- 
sities. But  after  you  are  fully  established  your  lessons,  lectures,  etc., 
will  be  given  only  on  alternate  days  and  the  duty  will  be  light  after 
you  have  prepared  your  course.  In  the  long  vacation  you  can  re- 
create yourself,  or  write,  and  at  all  times  have  leisure  for  improve- 
ment and  study. 

"Tenure  of  office."  Of  course  misconduct  or  incapacity  can  be  the 
only  grounds  for  removal  of  the  professors.  There  must  be  some 
tribunal  to  which  they  are  responsible,  and  there  is  no  civil  office 
with  us,  where  the  tenure  is  so  independent  of  others. 

"Expenses  of  voyage."  The  passage  from  Liverpool  to  New  York  is 
30  guineas.  From  New  York  to  the  University  will  be  not  more  than 
5  or  6.  I  do  not  know  whether  I  could  at  once  defray  the  expense 
of  passage  of  all  you  may  wish  to  go  with  you,  but  I  could  advance 
50  guineas,  or  a  trifle  more,  and  would  with  pleasure  if  you  found  it 
necessary. 

"Outfit."  If  you  have  furniture  take  it  with  you,  for  I  believe  we 
can  get  it  in  without  duty.  If  you  have  not,  you  can  for  a  few  hun- 
dred dollars  get  all  that  will  be  necessary  in  Virginia:  and  add  lux- 
uries at  your  leisure.  The  whole  you  will  find  will  require  not  many 
hundred  dollars,  but  too  much  depends  on  one's  ideas  of  an  estab- 
lishment to  allow  a  very  definite  answer. 

I  perceive  the  necessity  of  your  being  at  Cambridge  next  year,  and 
cannot  deny  the  reasonableness  of  your  demand.  The  visitors  con- 
template opening  the  University  on  the  1st  Feb'y,  '25.  Your  salary 
will  begin  from  the  day  of  your  embarkation  in  G.  B.  which  I  hoped 
would  be  early  in  October.  This  with  the  3  months  necessary  (al- 
lowing for  all  accidents)  for  your  visit  to  Cambridge  will  consume 
7  months  of  the  year.  I  have  no  idea  of  driving  a  hard  bargain  with 
you,  but  shall  make  the  most  liberal  one  my  duties  will  allow.  It 
may  however  seem  to  the  other  professors  an  extraordinary  indul- 
gence to  allow  this  without  any  drawback.  Perhaps  you  may  sug- 
gest some  middle  point  that  would  satisfy  every  one  and  be  reasonable 
in  itself.  That  however  shall  be  no  obstacle  with  us,  for  I  treat  with 
you  not  as  I  would  with  a  merchant  but  as  a  scholar.  With  this  temper 
on  both  sides  I  am  sure  you  will  be  pleased  with  your  situation  and 
my  country:  where  I  shall  be  happy  to  contribute  to  make  your  res- 
idence prosperous  and  agreeable. 
Yours  very  respectfully,  etc., 

P.   S. — You  will  observe  that  the  Hebrew  is  included  with   Latin 


OF  GEORGE  IvONG  17 

and   Greek,  also   Rhetoric,   belles   lettres,   ancient   history  and  geog- 
raphy. 

The  visitors  have  thought  it  best  in  the  beginning  to  crowd  the 
sciences,  rather  than  multiply  professors.  The  Hebrew  I  think  of  no 
importance  as  we  have  no  clergy  and  you  need  not  mind  whether 
you  know  anything  of  it.  The  Rhetoric  and  belles  lettres  will  be 
easily  attained. 

On  the  2nd  of  September,  1824,  Long  accepted  the  tendered 
Professorship  of  Ancient  Languages  in  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia (Letters  to  F.  W .  Gilmer,  No.  65) : 

GEORGE  LONG  TO  FRANCIS  W.  GILMER. 

Liverpool,  Thursday. 
(2nd  Sep.,  '24) 
Dear  Sir: 

I  am  afraid  you  will  think  me  rather  negligent  in  not  returning  a 
speedier  answer  to  your  kind  letter.  It  is  only  fair  to  tell  you  I  have 
been  making  all  the  enquiries  which  the  importance  of  the  case  re- 
quires, and  which  my  opportunities  in  Liverpool  supply.  I  yesterday 
was  introduced  to  Adam  Hodgson,  a  Liverpool  merchant  whom  you 
probably  may  know  as  the  author  of  some  letters  on  America.  He 
has  visited  Charlottesville  and  the  neighborhood.  His  report  has 
confirmed  my  previous  determination.  I  accept  your  proposal  with 
gratitude,  and  I  beg  you  will  not  think  worse  of  me  for  the  almost 
jealous  and  suspicious  scrutiny  which  I  have  made.  To  leave  a  native 
country,  to  relinquish  a  plan  of  life  formed  with  much  deliberation, 
and  to  leave  behind  some  valuable 'friends,  all  in  part  contributed  to 
make  me  feel  undecided  for  several  days.  I  have  carefully  reviewed 
the  whole  matter,  and  having  made  my  choice  I  look  forward  to  my 
situation  as  affording  me  the  reasonable  means  of  happiness  and  the 
power  of  being  useful.  There  is  only  one  point  which  I  forgot  to 
mention  in  my  former  letters.  From  the  tenor  of  your  words,  and 
from  the  liberal  spirit  of  your  polity,  I  infer  no  influence  will  be  exercised 
over  the  religious  opinions  of  the  professors.  I  will  express  as 
plainly  as  I  can  my  meaning.  I  infer  they  will  not  be  expected  to 
subscribe  to  any  particular  religious  opinion,  or  to  aid  in  the  propa- 
gation of  any  doctrinal  and  speculative  tenets  about  which  sects  dif- 
fer. On  such  theoretical  difficulties  men  at  my  age  have  not  had 
time  to  form  any  very  decided  opinion.  On  most  subjects  of  practi- 
cal utility  I  think  I  have  made  up  my  mind.  It  will  be  the  greatest 
pleasure  and  happiness  of  my  life  to  assist  as  far  as  I  am  able  in  dif- 
fusing useful  knowledge,  in  promoting  peace  and  good  will  among 
men,  and  the  interests  of  the  community  to  which  I  belong. 

I  have  just  received  a  letter  from  Key,  for  which  when  you  see 
him  you  may  give  him  my  thanks.  The  tone  of  it  serves  only  to 


18  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  IvONG 

make  me  more  satisfied  with  the  determination  I  have  formed.  Your 
kind  offer  of  50  guineas  I  feel  grateful  for:  I  shall  not  want  any 
money,  as  I  intend  to  take  my  family  over  next  year.  With  respect 
to  my  absence  from  America  in  1825,  it  will  be  a  fortunate  circum- 
stance if  the  vacation  should  form  a  part  of  the  time  during  which  I 
shall  be  in  England.  If  it  does  not,  I  can  only  promise  to  make  the 
time  as  short  as  possible,  for  which  purpose  I  shall  make  all  the 
arrangements  I  can  before  I  leave  England.  I  shall  be  ready  to  sail 
in  the  middle  of  October:  I  am  informed  that  packets  leave  Liver- 
pool for  New  York  4  times  a  month.  Of  course  I  do  not  interfere  in 
the  least  with  the  plans  which  you  and  Mr.  Key  have  made,  but  I 
shall  be  glad  to  know  if  you  sail  from  Liverpool,  and  at  what  time. 
You  may  depend  on  me  being  in  readiness  at  the  time  I  have  men- 
tioned. 

I  shall  be  much  obliged  to  you  if  you  will  answer  this  as  soon  as 
it  is  convenient  to  you. 

I  remain  yours  most  respectfully, 

GEORGE  LONG. 

No.  1  King  St.,  Soho. 

Professor  Long,  [writes  Dr.  Adams  (Jefferson  and  the  University 
of  Virginia,  p.  116)]  was  the  first  of  those  engaged  to  arrive  upon 
the  University  premises,  and  he  seems  to  have  made  a  favorable  im- 
pression upon  Jefferson.  The  latter  wrote  to  Cabell,  December  22, 
1824:  "Mr.  Long,  professor  of  ancient  languages,  is  located  in  his 
apartments  at  the  University.  He  drew,  by  lot,  Pavilion  No.  5.  He 
appears  to  be  a  most  amiable  man,  of  fine  understanding,  well  qual- 
ified for  his  department,  and  acquiring  esteem  as  fast  as  he  becomes 
known.  Indeed,  I  have  great  hopes  that  the  whole  selection  will 
fulfill  our  wishes." 

Professor  Long  more  than  met  the  expectations  of  the  friends  of 
the  University  during  the  few  years  that  he  tarried  in  Virginia,  al- 
though the  English  don  must  have  surprised  the  authorities  by  mar- 
rying a  Virginia  widow.  Jefferson  had  imagined  that  his  professors 
would  remain  single  and  live  upstairs  in  the  pavilions,  leaving  the 
ground  floor  for  recitation-rooms;  but  professors'  wives  soon  changed 
all  that,  and  the  classes  were  driven  out-doors. 

Mr.  Long  gave  a  character  and  a  standard  to  the  classical  de- 
partment which  it  has  never  lost.  He  represented  history  in  con- 
nection with  the  classics;  and  certainly  ancient  history  never  had 
a  more  scholarly  representative  upon  American  shores.  Unfortu- 
nately for  this  country,  but  to  the  great  gain  of  historical  science  in 
his  own  land,  Mr.  Long  was  called  home  in  1828,  to  a  professorship 
of  Greek  in  the  new  University  of  London.  Madison,  in  a  letter  to 
Monroe,  dated  January  23,  1828,  says,  "I  have  received  a  letter  from 
Mr.  Brougham  urging  our  release  of  Professor  Long."  The  univer- 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  IX)NG  19 

sity  authorities  in  Virginia  parted  most  reluctantly  with  Mr.  Long, 
but  recognized  the  superior  attractiveness  and  advantages  of  his  call 
to  the  English  capital.  They  urged,  however,  most  strongly  that 
the  professor  should  find  a  suitable  successor.  On  the  10th  of  March, 
1829,  Madison  wrote  to  Joseph  C.  Cabell:  "I  have  just  received  from 
our  minister  in  London  and  from  Professor  Long  letters  on  the  sub- 
ject of  a  successor  to  the  latter.  Mr.  B.  is  doing  all  he  can  for  us, 
but  without  any  encouraging  prospects.  Mr.  Long  is  pretty  decided 
that  we  ought  not  to  rely  on  any  successor  from  England,  and  is 
equally  so  that  Dr.  Harrison  will  answer  our  purpose  better  than  any 
one  attainable  abroad.  He  appears  to  be  quite  sanguine  upon  this 
point."  Dr.  Harrison  was  one  of  Mr.  Long's  own  pupils,  and  one  of 
the  first  graduates  of  the  University  of  Virginia.  No  more  fitting 
nomination  or  appointment,  nor  one  better  deserved,  could  possibly 
have  been  made. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  follow  in  detail  the  brilliant  record  of 
Professor  Long  after  his  return  to  England,  if  space  permitted.  He 
and  his  former  colleague  at  the  University,  Mr.  Key,  who  was  made 
professor  of  Latin  in  the  London  University,  introduced  into  Eng- 
land the  comparative  method  in  classical  study.  Long  edited  a  great 
variety  of  classical  texts,  some  of  which  remain  standard  to  this  day. 
The  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  in  a  striking  article  upon  this  remarka- 
ble scholar,  says:  "Long  has  exercised  by  his  writings,  and  indi- 
rectly through  some  of  his  London  University  pupils,  a  wide  influ- 
ence on  the  teaching  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages  in  England." 
He  was  prominent  in  founding  the  Royal  Geographical  Society,  and 
became  a  leading  authority  in  both  ancient  and  modern  geography. 
Long's  Classical  Atlas  is  known  to  school  boys  in  both  England  and 
America.  One  can  not  help  suspecting  that  Long's  knowledge  of 
this  country  had  something  to  do  with  the  inception  of  his  Geography 
of  America  and  the  West  Indies.  He  became  a  thorough  democrat 
in  education,  resigning  his  professorship  to  edit  the  Quarterly  Journal 
of  Education,  published  by  the  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful 
Knowledge  of  which  he  was  for  years  a  most  active  member.  Thir- 
teen years  of  his  life  he  devoted  to  the  Penny  Cyclopaedia,  of  which 
he  edited  twenty-nine  volumes.  This  was  his  greatest  work  for  the 
education  of  the  English  people.  He  returned  to  academic  life,  and 
wrote  his  great  work  on  Roman  history.  He  was  the  chief  English 
authority  upon  Roman  law  and  was  one  of  the  academic  pioneers  in 
this  study,  although  he  was  anticipated  by  Dr.  Thomas  Cooper,  who, 
in  Pennsylvania,  edited  parts  of  the  Code  of  Justinian  long  before  his 
call  to  represent  law  in  the  University  of  Virginia.  That  institution 
may  well  be  proud  of  the  scholarly  Englishman  first  chosen  by  Jef- 
ferson to  represent  sound  learning  within  its  walls 

George  Long  filled  the  chair  of  ancient  languages  from  1825  to 
1828.  He  was  a  master  of  arts  and  fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Cam- 


20  LETTERS  oF  GEORGE  IX)NG 

bridge,  and  on  the  establishment  of  the  University  of  London  was 
called  home  to  fill  the  Chair  of  Greek  m  that  institution.  Mr.  Long's 
influence  upon  his  fellow  teachers  and  his  students  was  great,  not- 
withstanding his  short  stay;  for  he  fixed  the  standard  of  requirement 
in  his  classes  at  a  higher  point  than  was  then  known  in  this  country, 
and  he  was  the  instructor  and  life-long  friend  of  his  successor,  Gess- 
ner  Harrison,  whose  immense  influence  upon  the  University  we  shall 
soon  consider  at  some  length.  To  characterize  the  scholarship  of  a 
man  so  well  known  would  be  a  work  of  supererogation  on  my  part, 
if  not  of  impertinence;  but  I  can  not  forbear  quoting  in  this  connec- 
tion the  opinion  of  the  man  who  was  perhaps  the  best  fitted  of  all 
English  critics  to  judge  such  matters — Mr.  Matthew  Arnold.  In  his 
essay  on  Marcus  Aurelius,  speaking  of  Mr.  Long's  translation  of  the 
Meditations,  Mr.  Arnold  said:  "Mr.  Long's  reputation  as  a  scholar  is 
a  sufficient  guarantee  of  the  general  fidelity  and  accuracy  of  his  trans- 
lation: On  these  matters,  besides,  I  am  hardly  entitled  to  speak,  and 
my  praise  is  of  no  value.  But  that  for  which  I  and  the  rest  of  the 
unkarned  may  venture  to  praise  Mr.  Long  is  this:  that  he  treats 
Marcus  Aurelius's  writings,  as  he  treats  all  the  other  remains  of 
Greek  and  Roman  antiquity  which  he  touches,  not  as  a  dead  and 
dry  matter  of  learning,  but  as  documents  with  a  side  of  modern  ap- 
plicability and  living  interest,  and  valuable  mainly  so  far  as  this  side 
in  them  can  be  made  clear;  that  as  in  his  notes  on  Plutarch's  Roman 
Lives  he  deals  with  the  modern  epoch  of  Caesar  and  Cicero,  not  as 
food  for  school-boys,  but  as  food  for  men,  and  men  engaged  in  the 
current  of  contemporary  life  and  action,  so  in  his  remarks  and  essays 
on  Marcus  Aurelius,  he  treats  this  truly  modern  striver  and  thinker, 
not  as  a  classical  dictionary  hero,  but  as  a  present  source  from  which 
to  draw  'example  of  life,  and  instruction  of  manners.'  Why  may 
not  a  son  of  Dr.  Arnold  say,  what  might  naturally  here  be  said  by 
any  other  critic,  that  in  this  lively  and  fruitful  way  of  considering 
the  men  and  affairs  of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome,  Mr.  Long  resembles 
Dr.  Arnold?" 

My  attention  was  called  by  our  librarian,  Mr.  John  S.  Patton, 
to  the  fact  that  Professor  Thomas  Chalmers  McCorvey,  of  the 
University  of  Alabama,  was  in  possession  of  letters  from  George 
Long,  our  first  professor  of  Ancient  Languages,  to  his  distin- 
guished pupil,  Henry  Tutwiler,  of  Alabama.  Henry  Tutwiler 
and  Gessner  Harrison  roomed  together  during  the  opening  years 
of  the  University  of  Virginia,  and  were  the  first  to  have  the  Mas- 
ter's degree  conferred  upon  them  when  it  was  subsequently  in- 
troduced into  our  academic  life.  Through  the  great  kindness  and 
courtesy  of  Professor  McCorvey,  I  have  been  enabled  to  see  and 
make  copies  of  the  precious  records  in  his  keeping,  which  include 


OF  GEORGE:  LONG  21 

autograph  letters  from  Long  to  Tutwiler,  and  official  recommen- 
dations of  Tutwiler  to  the  authorities  of  the  University  of  Ala- 
bama from  the  various  members  of  our  earliest  Faculty.  The 
letters  of  George  Long  are  included  in  this  book;  the  Tutwiler 
records  will  appear  in  the  Alumni  Bulletin  for  July,  1917.  These 
are  all  interesting  memorials  of  the  life  and  work  of  our  first  pro- 
fessor of  Ancient  Languages  and  of  one  of  his  two  most  distin- 
guished pupils — Gessner  Harrison  and  Henry  Tutwiler.  Pro- 
fessor McCorvey  has  himself  published  extracts  from  one  of  the 
letters  in  The  Nation  (N.  Y.)  of  October  26,  1893,  under  the  ti- 
tle of  "Long's  Portraits  of  the  Virginia  Presidents,"  but  above 
all  he  has  prepared  for  the  Alabama  Historical  Society  (Trans- 
actions, 1904,  Vol.  V)  a  most  valuable  paper  on  "Henry  Tutwiler 
and  the  Influence  of  the  University  of  Virginia  on  Education  in 
Alabama,"  which  I  have  secured  his  permission  to  republish  in 
the  ALUMNI  BULLETIN  in  connection  with  the  testimonials  to 
Henry  Tutwiler  from  Gessner  Harrison,  Robley  Dunglison,  R. 
M.  Patterson,  John  P.  Emmet,  and  George  Tucker,  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Virginia  Faculty  of  1830. 

I  begin  the  publication  of  the  Tutwiler  letters  with  one  of  those 
of  more  recent  date,  because  it  gives  Professor  Long's  earliest 
recollections  of  the  University  of  Virginia  and  its  founders : 

FROM   GEORGE  LONG  TO   HENRY  TUTWILER. 

Portfield,  Chichester, 
May,  30/75.     Very  cold. 
My  dear  friend: 

I  send  you  a  few  words  at  your  request,  which  you  may  use  as  you 
please. 

Early  in  December  1824  I  travelled  from  Washington  to  Freder- 
icksburg,  where  I  stayed  all  night.  I  do  not  know  how  I  was  known, 
but  a  gentleman  called  on  me,  and  asked  me  to  his  house,  and  I 
spent  a  pleasant  evening.  I  saw  some  young  Virginian  ladies  there 
and  I  thought  they  were  very  charming.  I  was  amused  with  the  curi- 
osity which  my  new  friends  showed  to  hear  some  news  about  Eng- 
land. A  gentleman  came  up  to  me,  and  asked  how  I  left  Mr.  Camp- 
bell, the  poet.  Luckily  I  had  lately  called  on  him  in  London  on  some 
business  about  a  relative  of  his  who  thought  of  emigrating  to  America, 
and  I  could  therefore  give  a  satisfactory  answer.  At  Fredericksburg 
I  first  tasted  corn  bread,  and  I  used  it  all  the  time  that  I  lived  in 
Virginia.  I  wish  that  I  could  have  it  now. 


22  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 

From  Fredericksburg  I  had  a  two  days'  rather  unpleasant  journey 
to  Charlottesville  in  the  stage  coach.  The  roads  were  bad,  the  ac- 
commodation not  good,  and  the  company  very  indifferent.  The 
young  men  of  the  present  day  can  hardly  conceive  what  this  road 
was  then,  for  I  suppose  that  there  is  now  a  railroad  the  whole  dis- 
tance. 

At  Charlottesville,  I  mean  of  course  the  University  near  it,  I  lived 
at  least  two  months  in  the  house  which  was  assigned  to  me,  in  great 
solitude  and  during  bad  weather.  It  would  have  been  still  worse,  if 
I  had  not  experienced  the  kindness  of  the  Proctor,  Mr.  Brocken- 
brough,  whose  wife's  sister  I  afterwards  married.  The  other  profes- 
sors had  embarked  in  an  English  vessel  for  Norfolk,  and  they  had 
a  very  long  passage.  The  ship  was  described  to  me  as  something  like 
an  old  hay  stack:  it  could  just  float  and  go  before  the  wind.  I  had 
more  wisely  embarked  in  one  of  the  New  York  American  packets 
from  Liverpool.  Since  that  time  the  English  have  learned  to  build 
good  ships  for  the  American  trade.*  When  my  brother  professors  ar- 


*Here  once  more  Dr.  Adams  (Jefferson  and  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, p.  115)  strikes  happily  into  our  record  with  the  following  let- 
ter from  the  Gilmer  Manuscripts  (Letters  to  F.  W .  Gilmer,  No.  51) : 

GEORGE   LONG  TO   FRANCIS   W.  GILMER,  WRITTEN  AFTER  LONG^S  AR- 
RIVAL IN  VIRGINIA. 

University  of  Virginia,  Monday, 

January  25,  1825. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  am  sorry  to  learn  that  you  still  continue  so  weak  from  the  effects  of 
your  illness.  I  anticipated  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  in  this  neigh- 
borhood during  Xmas:  your  presence  would  have  contributed  to  en- 
liven the  University  wh.  being  almost  without  inhabitants  looks  like 
a  deserted  city. 

I  have  been  settled  for  some  weeks  in  one  of  the  pavilions.  I 
bought  only  a  few  articles  in  Charlottesville,  as  I  found  the  prices 
of  most  things  extravagantly  high.  Mr.  Peyton  has  forwarded  me 
some  chairs  from  Richmond  and  these  with  what  I  have  will  be  suf- 
ficient at  present.  You  may  probably  recollect  that  I  told  you  I  had 
sent  my  books  from  Lpool  consigned  to  Mr.  Peyton;  they  will  be  sent 
either  to  Baltm.,  Norfolk,  or  Richmond.  I  shall  be  obliged  to  you  if 
you  will  remind  that  gentleman  of  them  and  beg  Him  to  forward  them 
to  me  as  soon  as  he  receives  them. 

I  dined  with  Mr.  Jefferson  last  Monday.  He  was  in  good  health, 
but  like  all  of  us  very  uneasy  about  the  delay  of  our  friends.  I  do  not 
yet,  being  acquainted  more  fully  with  all  the  circumstances  of  the 
case,  entertain  any  apprehensions  about  their  safety,  but  I  regret 
both  for  the  University  and  my  own  personal  comfort  that  they  were 
so  foolish  as  to  embark  in  an  old  log. 

The  people  in  Charlottesville  having  nothing  better  to  do  amuse 
themselves  with  inventing  stories  on  this  unfortunate  subject.  Al- 
most every  day  from  an  undoubted  authority  I  am  informed  the 


THE    FIRST    CATALOGUE   OF   THE,   UNIVERSITY. 


BOARD  OF  VISITORS, 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON, 
RECTOK. 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON, 
JAMES  MADISON, 
CHAPMAN  JOHNSON, 
JOSEPH  C.  CABELL, 
JAMES  BRECKENRIDGE, 
JOHN   H,  COOKE, 
GEORGE  LOT  ALL. 

Secretary  of  the  Board, 
PETER  MINOR. 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  IX>NG  23 

rived  at  the  University,  they  found  me  eating  corn  bread  and  already 
a  Virginian  in  tastes  and  habits.  Things  were  rather  rough,  but  I 
have  always  had  and  still  have  the  faculty  of  making  myself  happy 
under  any  circumstances. 

A  few  days  after  my  arrival  at  Charlottesville  I  walked  up  to  Mon- 
ticello  to  see  Mr.  Jefferson.  I  made  myself  known  to  his  servant, 
and  was  introduced  into  his  great  room.  In  a  few  minutes  a  tall 
dignified  old  man  entered,  and  after  looking  at  me  a  moment  said,  Are 
you  the  new  professor  of  antient  languages?  I  replied  that  I  was. 
He  observed,  You  are  very  young:  to  which  I  answered,  I  shall  grow 
older.  He  smiled,  and  said,  That  was  true.  He  was  evidently  some- 
what startled  at  my  youthful  and  boyish  appearance;  and  I  could 
plainly  see  that  he  was  disappointed.  We  fell  to  talking  and  I  stayed 
to  dine  with  him.  He  was  grave  and  rather  cold  in  his  manner,  but 
he  was  very  polite;  and  I  was  pleased  with  his  simple  Virginian  dress, 
and  his  conversation  free  from  all  affectation.  I  remember  this  in- 
terview as  well  as  if  it  took  place  yesterday. 

During  my  solitary  residence  before  the  University  opened  I  vis- 
ited Monticello  several  times  and  occasionally  passed  the  night  there. 
I  thought  that  he  became  better  satisfied  with  the  boy  professor;  and 
we  talked  on  all  subjects.  He  saw  that  I  took  great  interest  in  the 
geography  of  America  and  in  the  story  of  the  revolution;  and  he  told 
me  much  about  it,  but  in  a  very  modest  way  as  to  himself.  He 
showed  me  the  original  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence; 
and  he  could  clearly  see  that  I  was  in  habits,  as  I  have  always  been 
and  still  am,  a  man  who  preferred  plain  republican  institutions  to  the 
outward  show  and  splendour  of  European  kingdoms — when  I  say 
'republican  institutions,'  I  mean  genuine  republican,  for  a  republic 
rrfay  have  the  name,  and  very  little  besides  that  I  value. 

I  often  saw  Mr.  Jefferson  between  this  time  and  his  death.     When 


professors  have  arrived.  A  few  hours  after  I  had  received  your  let- 
ter a  man  very  gravely  assured  me  that  the  professors  were  at  that 
moment  in  Richmond. 

The  books  have  arrived  in  safety.  We  have  not  been  able  to  find 
a  catalogue  of  them,  and  I  believe  we  shall  not  take  them  out  of  the 
boxes  before  Mr.  Jefferson  receives  one  from  you.  I  brought  a  suf- 
ficient number  to  employ  myself  on  during  this  most  anxious  ex- 
pectation of  our  friends'  arrival.  Beside  the  loss  of  their  society  at 
present  I  am  truly  concerned  for  the  interests  of  the  University: 
I  hear  daily  of  many  who  are  most  eagerly  looking  forward  to  the 
opening  of  the  institution;  it  is  possible  this  short  delay  at  first  may 
cause  the  Univ.  some  temporary  loss. 

We  have  just  had  a  heavy  fall  of  snow:  I  am  confined  to  my  house 
and  see  no  living  being  but  my  black  friend  Jacob  and  Mr.  Grey's 
family  where  I  eat. 

I  remain  with  the  best  wishes  for  your  speedy  recovery 

Yours  most  respectfully, 

G.  LONG. 


24  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE;  LONG 

he  came  on  his  horse  to  the  University,  he  generally  called  on  me. 
His  thoughts  were  always  about  this  new  place  of  education  of  which 
he  was  really  the  founder;  and  though  the  first  few  years  of  the  Uni- 
versity were  not  quite  satisfactory,  he  confidently  looked  forward  to 
the  future  and  to  the  advantages  which  the  state  would  derive  from 
the  young  men  who  were  educated  in  the  University  of  Virginia. 

I  remember  well  a  long  conversation  which  I  once  had  with  Mr. 
Jefferson  on  George  Washington.  He  spoke  of  him  freely  and  gen- 
erously, as  of  a  man  of  great  and  noble  character.  Mr.  Tucker  in 
his  life  of  Jefferson  has  given  the  character  of  George  Washington 
as  Jefferson  wrote  it;  and  it  is  perhaps  certain  that  the  character  was 
written  at  the  time  when  Mr.  Jefferson  spoke  of  Washington  to  me, 
though  he  told  me  something  more  than  the  written  character  con- 
tains, but  nothing  that  is  contradictory  to  it.  The  character  is  ex- 
ceedingly well  written,  and  it  proves  that  as  a  mere  writer  Jefferson 
might  have  excelled  most  men  of  his  day. 

I  discovered  that  Mr.  Jefferson  was  well  acquainted  with  Polybius, 
who  is  not  a  good  writer,  but  a  man  of  excellent  sense  and  the  sound- 
est judgment.  The  last  time  that  I  saw  Mr.  Jefferson  when  he  was 
suffering  from  a  complaint  which  caused  his  death,  he  was  reading 
Pliny's  letters,  and  we  had  some  talk  about  a  passage.  A  few  weeks 
after  when  I  was  at  the  Sweet  Springs  during  the  summer  vacation, 
I  heard  of  his  death.  There  was  much  foolish  display  on  the  occa- 
sion in  Virginia,  and  some  extravagant  bombastic  orations,  one  of 
them  by  a  man  whom  I  knew.  Those  who  had  more  sense  showed 
their  feeling  in  another  way.  The  man  who  had  done  so  much  for 
Virginia  and  the  United  States  was  honoured  for  his  services,  for  his 
talents,  and  his  grand  and  simple  character.  He  ought  to  be  revered 
by  all  who  enjoy  the  advantage  of  being  educated  in  his  University, 
and  ever  remembered  as  one  of  the  great  men  whom  Virginia  has 
produced.  His  great  deeds  are  recorded  in  the  epitaph  which  he 
wrote  for  his  own  tomb. 

Soon  after  my  arrival  in  Virginia,  and  it  was  either  in  December 
1824  or  in  January  1825,  I  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Madison,  whom 
I  had  not  then  seen.  He  asked  me  if  I  could  write  something  in 
the  newspapers  which  would  give  the  people  some  notion  of  what 
I  proposed  to  do  as  a  teacher  in  the  new  University.  I  wrote  some- 
thing which  appeared  in  the  Richmond  Enquirer,  but  I  have  no  copy 
of  it.  I  think  that  I  cannot  be  mistaken  about  the  paper  in  which 
my  statement  appeared,  though  I  know  well  that  the  memory  of  an 
old  man  sometimes  deceives  him.  I  must  have  written  either  in  De- 
cember 1824  or  in  January  1825.  Mr.  Madison  on  reading  what  I 
had  written  wrote  to  me  a  very  kind  letter.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  he 
was  much  pleased  with  what  I  had  done  and  with  the  plain  simple 
way  in  which  I  had  expressed  my  meaning.  I  often  saw  Mr.  Madi- 
son afterwards,  and  I  think  that  he  was  one  of  the  most  sensible  men 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG  25 

that  I  ever  spoke  to.  I  do  not  know  what  I  should  think  of  my 
youthful  work  if  I  saw  it  now,  but  Mr.  Madison's  approbation  makes 
me  suppose  that  it  contained  good  sense,  and  was  of  a  practical  na- 
ture, and  adapted  for  the  use  of  the  young  men  whom  I  was  going 
to  teach. 

The  University  opened,  I  think  in  February,  1825.  Of  course  the 
exact  time  is  known.  I  remember  one  fact  well.  It  is  before  my  eyes 
now.  Dr.  Harrison  brought  his  two  sons,  Gessner  and  another.  I 
examined  them  before  admission,  and  I  was  much  surprised  to  find 
that  Gessner  knew  so  much  and  knew  it  so  well.  He  became  my  pupil 
and  my  friend;  and  when  I  left  the  University  and  was  consulted  about 
my  successor,  I  confidently  recommended  Gessner  Harrison.  It  is  a 
pleasant  recollection  to  me  that  my  judgment  was  proved  to  be  right; 
a  painful  thought  also  that  this  excellent  man  has  left  the  world  at 
a  comparatively  early  age.  I  believe  from  what  I  have  heard  and  read 
that  he  discharged  his  duties  most  honorably  and  with  great  ability, 
and  that  his  name  will  be  always  remembered  in  the  University  where 
he  was  both  a  student  and  a  professor. 

I  once  saw  Mr.  Monroe,  who  was  a  visitor  of  the  University,  and 
I  dined  in  his  company  with  the  two  other  former  presidents  Jefferson  and 
Madison.  I  could  form  no  opinion  of  him,  for  I  believe  that  he  said 
nothing,  and  only  made  an  unfortunate  attempt  to  say  something  to 
me,  for  I  sat  by  him.  After  some  time  he  turned  to  me  and  said, 
How  is  your  father?  I  was  so  surprised  at  this  question  from  a  man, 
who  could  have  known  nothing  of  my  father  who  was  then  dead  and  had 
only  been  in  the  West  India  Islands,  that  I  made  an  answer  as  silly 
as  the  question.  My  answer  was,  I  have  no  father:  and  he  said  no 
more  to  me.  He  was  a  man  very  unlike  Jefferson,  and  Madison;  but 
I  know  now  that  he  had  some  good  qualities,  and  some  merits.  But 
I  think  that  he  must  have  been  rather  a  dull  companion. 

I  have  seen  letters  by  Mr.  Monroe,  and  I  can  testify  that  he  neither 
wrote  well  nor  observed  well  the  orthography  of  common  practice. 
Jefferson  and  Madison  wrote  in  all  respects  as  gentlemen  should 
write.  I  can  now  understand  how  Monroe  failed  in  his  orthography. 
His  education,  I  think,  was  imperfect;  and  I  admit  that  I  who  was 
great  at  spelling  in  my  youth  am  now  by  no  means  a  very  good  mas- 
ter of  orthography,  one  of  the  most  disorderly  parts  of  our  language. 

This  neglect  of  good  spelling  gave  me  much  trouble.  Some  of  the 
students  spelled  well,  but  some  very  badly.  I  always  corrected  the 
errors  and  was  pleased  to  find  that  many  of  them  improved.  Good 
spelling  is  certainly  a  small  accomplishment,  but  very  bad  spelling 
is  a  great  defect,  and  often  shows  great  ignorance.  I  have  been  in- 
formed that  Americans  are  taking  some  pains  about  this  small  mat- 
ter. I  remember  one  word  that  the  more  stupid  among  the  students 
often  produced:  it  was  'rebublic.'  I  explained  the  origin  of  the 


26  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  U)NG 

word,  and  made  an  unlucky  joke  about  the  'bubl'  part  of  the  word, 
but  I  soon  discovered  that  jokes  were  very  foolish. 

A  few  words  about  the  early  years  of  the  University  may  be  not 
out  of  place  here.  The  discipline  of  the  young  men  was  a  difficult 
matter;  and  perhaps  it  may  be  said  that  foreigners  would  fail  here. 
I  am  not  of  opinion  that  they  did  fail  and  I  believe  that  they  did 
as  well  as  native  professors  would  have  done,  and  even  better.  There 
must  be  some  rules  for  all  places  of  education,  and  I  have  always 
maintained  that  you  must  enforce  rules  as  long  as  they  exist.  I 
know  that  the  professors  were  most  desirous  to  keep  order  and  dis- 
cipline without  severity.  Those  who  know  me  may  remember  what 
a  quiet  harmless  young  fellow  I  seemed  to  be;  but  no  man  was  more 
resolute  in  punishing  by  expulsion  violations  of  the  great  rules  of 
the  University  and  persistent  neglect  of  Academic  duties.  If  any 
man  is  living  who  suffered  from  this  strictness,  I  believe  that  he  will 
admit  that  the  professors  were  just  and  impartial.  I  remember  one 
noble  young  man  and  even  his  name,  who  continually  broke  all 
the  rules  about  attendance  at  lectures,  though  I  often  warned  him 
of  the  consequences.  He  was  at  last  sent  away,  and  upon  my  report 
of  his  neglect.  Before  he  went  away  he  admitted  to  me  that  he 
was  justly  punished.  Such  a  youth  may  have  made  an  excellent  man, 
and  I  hope  that  it  was  so.  Whatever  the  people  thought  of  our 
discipline,  and  I  believe  that  even  those  excellent  men,  the  Visitors, 
thought  that  we  were  sometimes  too  severe,  I  have  not  the  least 
reason  to  regret  anything  that  I  did.  I  did  what  I  thought  best 
for  all;  and  I  would  do  the  same  again.  I  have  always  had  the 
temper  of  a  soldier,  and  it  was  only  the  accident  of  my  father's  loss 
at  sea  that  caused  me  to  be  sent  to  the  University  of  Cambridge  to 
seek  my  fortune  instead  of  wearing  a  red  coat. 

On  the  occasion  of  one  great  disturbance,  the  Visitors  met,  and 
I  well  remember  Chapman  Johnson  speaking  to  me  and  another  pro- 
fessor, whom  I  do  not  name.  We  were  greatly  dissatisfied  with  the 
state  of  things.  I  shall  never  forget  that  bright  intelligent  face,  that 
slow,  deliberate,  and  persuasive  manner  of  this  eminent  lawyer.  I 
conclude  by  saying  that  before  I  left  the  University  there  was  a 
great  improvement.  There  was  more  work  done,  better  order  kept, 
and  I  can  say  that  during  the  last  year  of  my  residence,  I  was  quite 
happy.  The  difficulties  of  the  professors  at  the  beginning  were  such 
as  any  man  who  knew  Virginia  at  that  time  might  have  expected. 
A  little  training  was  all  that  was  wanted.  I  believed  and  I  still  be- 
lieve that  I  never  had  more  youth  of  good  abilities  under  me,  nor 
youths  more  capable  of  being  made  good  and  useful  men. 

During  Gessner  Harrison's  life  I  occasionally  heard  from  him,  and 
also  from  the  dear  friend  to  whom  I  send  these  lines,  and  whom  I 
still  hear  from.  I  have  information  that  the  University  of  Virginia 


••'-'&'&      **&  vi,  i     J  »*rv   I          \ 


OF  GEORGE  LONG  27 

is  now  a  successful  place  of  education,  a  seat  of  learning  and  science, 
of  which  Virginia  may  justly  be  proud,  and  I  trust  and  hope  that 
it  will  always  be  improving.  One  of  my  most  pleasant  remembrances 
of  this  country  is  a  letter  which  I  received  from  General  Lee  written 
a  very  short  time  before  his  death.  It  is  a  letter  in  which  he  thanks  me 
for  a  copy  of  my  second  edition  of  the  translation  of  Marcus  Anton- 
inus, which  I  sent  to  him.  The  cause  of  my  sending  it  is  sufficiently 
explained  in  a  note  at  the  beginning  of  the  book.*  My  admiration  of 
this  noble  Virginian  is  unbounded.  He  was  a  good  man,  and  a  sol- 
dier such  as  the  world  has  rarely  seen.  The  youth  of  Virginia  can 
never  find  a  better  example  for  them  to  imitate  than  General  Lee, 
who  is  one  of  the  last  of  those  illustrious  men,  whom  Englishmen 
ought  to  venerate  as  much  as  their  own  countrymen. 

GEORGE  LONG. 

In  order  to  secure  a  copy  of  the  pedagogical  manifesto,  which 
at  Madison's  request  Professor  Long  made  to  the  people  of  Vir- 
ginia and  which  was  supposedly  printed  in  a  Virginia  newspaper 
late  in  1824  or  early  in  1825,  I  enlisted  the  aid  of  the  Library  of 
Congress,  and  following  is  the  report  made  by  the  Periodical  Di- 
vision : 


*The  note  referred  to  is  the  dedication  itself  to  General  Lee;  it 
reads  as  follows:  "I  have  been  informed  that  an  American  publisher 
has  printed  the  first  edition  of  this  translation  of  M.  Antoninus.  I 
do  not  grudge  him  his  profit,  if  he  has  made  any.  There  may  be 
many  men  and  women  in  the  United  States  who  will  be  glad  to  read 
the  thoughts  of  the  Roman  emperor.  If  the  American  politicians,  as 
they  are  called,  would  read  them  also,  I  should  be  much  pleased,  but 
I  do  not  think  the  emperor's  morality  would  suit  their  taste. 

"I  have  also  been  informed  that  the  American  publisher  has  dedi- 
cated this  translation  to  an  American.  I  have  no  objection  to  the 
book  being  dedicated  to  an  American;  but  in  doing  this  without  my 
consent  the  publisher  has  transgressed  the  bounds  of  decency, 
have  never  dedicated  a  book  to  any  man,  and  if  I  dedicated  this,  I 
should  choose  the  man  whose  name  seemed  to  me  most  worthy  to 
be  joined  to  that  of  the  Roman  soldier  and  philosopher.  I  might  dedi- 
cate the  book  to  the  successful  general  who  is  now  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  with  the  hope  that  his  integrity  and  justice  will 
restore  peace  and  happiness,  so  far  as  he  can,  to  those  unhappy  States 
which  have  suffered  so  much  from  war  and  the  unrelenting  hostility 
of  wicked  men. 

"But,  as  the  Roman  poet  said, 

'Victrix  causa  Deis  placuit,  sed  victa  Catoni;' 

and  if  I  dedicated  this  little  book  to  any  man,  I  would  dedicate  it 
to  him  who  led  the  Confederate  armies  against  the  powerful  invader, 
and  retired  from  an  unequal  contest  defeated,  but  not  dishonoured; 
to  the  noble  Virginian  soldier,  whose  talents  and  virtues  place  him 
by  the  side  of  the  best  and  wisest  man  who  sat  on  the  throne  of  the 
Imperial  Caesars." 

GEORGE  LONG. 


28  BETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 

We  have  searched  such  files  of  Virginia  newspapers  as  the  Library 
of  Congress  possesses  for  the  period  December  1824-March  1825. 
Our  file  of  the  tri-weekly  Virginia  Herald  (Fredericksburg)  is  com- 
plete for  this  period,  while  our  file  of  the  semi-weekly  Richmond  En- 
quirer lacks  only  three  numbers  within  these  dates.  Our  files  for  the 
same  period  of  the  Alexandria  Herald,  Phoenix  Gazette  (Alexandria), 
Intelligencer  and  Commercial  Advertiser  (Petersburg),  American  Beacon 
and  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth  Daily  Advertiser  (Norfolk),  Winchester 
Republican,  Constitutional  Whig  (Richmond),  Commercial  Compiler 
(Richmond),  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth  Herald  (Norfolk),  Virginian 
(Lynchburg),  Winchester  Gazette,  and  the  Central  Gazette  (Charlottes- 
ville),  are  broken,  and  in  some  cases  only  scattering  numbers  are  in- 
cluded. We  have  gone  through  all  these  files,  both  those  complete 
and  those  incomplete,  but  do  not  find  Long's  statement  or  any  al- 
lusion to  it. 

The  arrival  of  Long  in  Charlottesville  is  noted  in  the  Central  Gazette 
of  December  25,  1824,  and  a  communication  "addressed  to  the 
Proctor  of  the  University,"  signed  "An  European"  and  dealing  with 
the  requirements  in  the  classics  for  entrance  to  the  University  of 
Virginia,  is  printed  in  the  Richmond  Enquirer  of  March  4,  1825.  This 
communication  alludes  to  an  advertisement  which  is  said  to  have 
appeared  in  the  Daily  National  Intelligencer  (Washington)  of  Febru- 
ary 22,  1825.  We  have  found  this  advertisement  in  the  issue  of  Feb- 
ruary 21,  1825.  It  is  signed  Arthur  S.  Brockenbrough,  Proctor  of  the 
University,  and  deals  only  in  part  with  the  requirements  for  entrance 
to  the  School  of  Ancient  Languages. 

These   references   may  be   interesting   to    Professor    FitzHugh. 

Subsequently  the  Library  of  Congress  reported  that  the  Cen- 
tral Gazette  (Charlottesville,  Va.)  in  its  issue  of  December  25, 
1824,  contained  the  following  notice  of  Long's  arrival  in  Char- 
lottesville: "Three  of  the  Professors  of  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia have  arrived  in  Charlottesville,  viz.,  Dr.  Dunglison,  Mr. 
Long,  and  Mr.  Blatterman  (sic)"  In  the  same  issue  of  the  Cen- 
tral Gazette  there  was  found  a  contribution  about  a  column  long 
entitled  "Imported  Professors,  and  Virginia  Stump  Orators  and 
Presidents."  It  was  also  noticed  that  the  advertisement  referred 
to  in  the  Daily  National  Intelligencer,  of  February  21,  1825, 
seems  to  be  the  same  as  the  statement  printed  in  the  Central  Ga- 
zette, of  Charlottesville,  of  February  19,  1825. 

While  the  Library  of  Congress  did  not  succeed  in  discovering 
George  Long's  published  statement  of  his  academic  program  to  the 
people  of  the  Commonwealth,  there  was  found  other  interesting 


OF  GEORGE  LONG  29 

matter*  which  enters  appropriately  at  this  point  in  the  historical 
whole : 

FROM 

Charlottesville,  Va.,   Saturday,  December  25,  1824. 

[page  2,  column  4] 
For  the  Central  Gazette. 

Imported  Professors,  and  Virginia  Stump  Orators  and  Presidents. 

We  have  seen  some  extracts  from  our  northern  prints  expressing 
much  indignation  at  what  they  term,  "importation  of  professors"  for 
the  University  of  Virginia.  The  Boston  Courier  quotes,  with  appro- 
bation, the  remarks  of  the  Connecticut  Journal  upon  the  annuncia- 
tion of  the  fact,  that  Mr.  Gilmer  had  engaged  several  professors  from 
England  who  were  expected  shortly  to  arrive.  "What  American,  ex- 
claims the  Journal,  can  read  the  above  notice  without  indignation? 
Mr.  Jefferson  might  as  well  have  sent  to  England  for  brick  to  build 
his  taverns  and  dormitories.  Mr.  Gilmer  could  have  fully  discharged 
his  mission,  with  half  the  trouble  and  expense,  by  a  short  trip  to 
New  England;"  and  the  Philadelphia  Gazette  adds;  "or  by  a  still 
shorter  trip  to  Pennsylvania.  But  because  Pennsylvania  does  not 
produce  stump  Orators  and  Presidents,  the  Virginians  conclude  that 
it  produces  nothing  else  of  value,  forgetful  that  the  first  physicians, 
philosophers,  historians,  astronomers  and  painters  known  in  Ameri- 
can annals,  have  been  citizens  of  our  state."  This  importation  of 
professors,  say  these  journalists,  "is  the  greatest  insult  the  American 
people  have  ever  received." 

We  fear,  that  the  respectful  anticipation  of  this  objection,  by  our 
Rector  and  Visitors,  in  their  late  report  to  our  legislature,  could  not, 
and  will  not,  save  us  from  the  wrathful  indignation  of  these  sov- 
ereigns in  literature,  the  learned  and  patriotic  editors  of  the  Courier, 
the  Journal  and  the  Gazette.  But  the  report  says,  "The  visitors! 
were  sensible  that  there  might  be  found,  in  the  different  seminaries 
of  the  United  States,  persons  qualified  to  conduct  these  several 
schools  with  entire  competence;  but  it  was  neither  probable  that  they 
would  leave  the  situations  in  which  they  were,  nor  honorable,  nor 
moral,  to  endeavor  to  seduce  them  from  their  stations;  and  to  have 
filled  the  professional  chairs  with  unemployed  and  secondary  char- 
acters, would  not  have  fulfilled  the  object,  or  satisfied  the  expecta- 
tions of  our  country,  in  this  institution.  It  was  moreover  believed 
that  to  advance  in  science  we  ought  to  avail  ourselves  of  the  lights 
of  countries  already  advanced  before  us,"  etc. 


*The    following    extracts    are     quoted    verbatim    without    stylistic 
changes. 

fMr.  Jefferson,   Mr.  Madison,  etc.,  are  visitors. 


30  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  I<ONG 

On  this  occasion  also,  it  seems,  that  we  have  been  so  unfortunate 
as  to  insult  the  American  people  by  importing  professors  for  our 
University  as  we  have  heretofore  insulted  them  by  producing  so 
many  stump  Orators  and  Presidents.  But  surely  it  has  not  been  long 
since  the  patriotic  editors  of  New  England  were  seized  with  this 
abhorrence  of  importations  from  Old  England.  During  the  embargo, 
and  when  the  Hartford  Convention  was  sitting,  they  seemed  to  be 
possessed  with  such  a  "longing  after  the  flesh  pots  of  Egypt,"  that 
they  would  not  only  have  freely  imported  professors,  but  also  Eng- 
lish legislators,  governors  and  rulers.  But  now,  it  seems,  they  are 
desirous  that  all  foreign  knowledge  of  Languages,  History,  and  Math- 
ematics should  be  included  in  the  TARIFF. 

As  to  our  respectable  and  scientific  sister,  Pennsylvania,  we  cer- 
tainly feel  no  inclination  to  disparage  her  claim  to  the  production  of 
native  genius  and  science;  but  really  we  did  not  know  that  she 
abounded  so  much  as  to  have  them  to  spare  to  her  sister  states.  At 
this  time,  one  of  the  most  eminent  professors  in  her  Medical  Uni- 
versity is  a  Virginian,  and  another  of  them,  we  believe,  was  lately 
a  professor  in  a  University  in  Virginia;  and  if,  in  recalling  him,  she 
only  took  back  what  was  her  own,  it  seems  at  least  inconsistent  with 
her  present  boasted  superabundance.  For  how  many  of  her  physi- 
cians, philosophers,  etc.,  she  may  have  been  indebted  to  other  states 
and  countries  we  know  not;  but  we  freely  admit,  that  it  is  credita- 
ble to  her  to  receive  and  encourage  them,  no  matter  where  produced. 

But  if  Virginia  by  producing  so  many  stump  orators  and  presidents, 
has  acted  unwisely  towards  herself,  in  contributing  too  much  of  her 
native  talents  to  the  common  service  of  the  Union  to  which  she 
belongs,  and  is  ardently  attached,  she  certainly  never  expected 
thereby  to  injure  the  interest  or  feelings  of  Pennsylvania.  When  the 
walls  which  contained  the  first  Congress  in  Philadelphia  trembled, 
and  the  anxious  hearts  of  the  hearers  thrilled  at  the  voices  of  our 
stump  Orators,  Henry  and  Lee,  we  little  supposed  that  we  were  obtrud- 
ing upon  Pennsylvania.  And  when  the  people  of  the  same  city  saw 
our  ever  dear  and  beloved  WASHINGTON  ascend  the  chair  of  chief 
magistrate,  as  the  first  stump  President  of  this  great  Union,  surely  it 
never  entered  into  their  heads  to  imagine  that  Virginia  was  obtrud- 
ing her  stump  sprouts  upon  Pennsylvania;  and  from  the  conduct  of 
Pennsylvania  herself,  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  she  considered  us 
as  acting  injuriously,  or  offensively  to  her  when  we  produced  our 
stump  Presidents,  Jefferson,  Madison  and  Monroe.  But  Virginia  men, 
and  principals,  and  conduct,  are  getting  out  of  fashion,  and,  to  use 
a  phrase  of  her  planters  and  farmers  well  suited  to  the  use  of  these 
learned  editors,  the  poor  Old  Dominion  is  "getting  behind  the 
stump,"  and  in  the  vicissitude  of  events,  she  may  be  treated  like  the 
faithful  old  dog  who  had  worn  his  teeth  to  the  stumps  in  his  mas- 
ter's service.  But  Virginia  will  stand  as  stiff  as  a  stump  to  her  good 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG  31 

old  principles  and  to  the  men  who  faithfully  support  them;  and  as 
long  as  she  has  the  stump  of  a  tooth,  she  will  show  it  in  their  de- 
fence. It  is  true,  that  she  has  lately  been  stumped,  root  and  branch 
by  the  eccentric  course  of  the  scientific  state  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
her  departure  from  the  good  old  course  in  which  she  and  Virginia 
were  so  long  united;  and  perhaps  her  learned  editors  with  their  su- 
perabundance of  philosophers,  astronomers  and  painters,  with  the 
assistance  of  New  England  theologians  and  witch-killers,  with  Presi- 
dent Jackson  at  their  head,  may  suspend  the  habeas  corpus  of  our 
imported  professors,  lay  a  tariff  upon  future  importations,  and  an  ex- 
cise upon  Virginia  stump  Orators  and  Presidents,  suppress  insurrec- 
tions in  Pennsylvania,  and  Hartford  Conventions  and  witchcraft  in 
New  England,  and  triumphantly  victorious  in  arts  and  sciences 

STUMP  THE  D 1,. 

N.  B.  Let  not  the  good  people  of  Pennsylvania  or  New  England, 
learned  or  unlearned,  suppose,  that  we  are  wanting  in  due  respect  for 
them;  but  in  hurling  back  the  stumps  that  have  been  aimed  at  our 
heads  by  their  witty  editors,  we  ought  not  to  be  blamed  if  some  of 
them  should  fall  awry. 

S . 

FROM  THE  "DAILY  NATIONAL  INTELLIGENCER." 

Washington,   Monday,   February  21,   1825. 
[page  2,  column  4] 

University  of  Virginia. 

It  had  been  expected  that  this  Institution  would  have  been  opened 
on  the  1st  day  of  February  (present  month),  and  for  the  term  of 
ten  months  and  a  half,  ending  on  the  15th  of  December,  $100  would 
have  been  required  by  the  different  keepers  of  the  hotels,  for  dieting 
the  students;  23  dollars  by  the  University  for  the  occupation  of  the 
dormitories  and  participation  in  the  public  buildings,  and  tuition  fees 
to  the  Professors;  to  wit,  50  dollars  if  a  single  one  is  attended;  30 
dollars  to  each,  if  two;  and  25  dollars  to  each,  if  three;  every  Stu- 
dent being  free  to  attend  such,  and  such  only,  as  are  consonant  with 
his  viev/s.  Circumstances,  however,  have  produced  a  delay  of  5 
weeks,  to  wit,  till  the  1st  Monday  of  the  ensuing  month  of  March, 
on  which  it  will  be  opened  without  fail;  and,  in  consequence  of  the 
shortened  session,  from  March  7th  to  15th  of  December,  one-eighth 
will  be  deducted  from  the  preceding  charges  for  the  present  ses- 
sion. The  Dormitories  provided  will  accommodate  218  students, 
two  in  each,  and  will  now  be  engaged  by  those  who  propose  to  enter 
as  Students,  in  the  order  in  which  applications  shall  be  received. 
The  Schools  are,  1st,  of  Ancient  Languages;  2nd,  of  Modern  Lan- 
guages; 3rd,  Mathematics;  4th,  Natural  Philosophy;  5th,  Natural  His- 
tory; 6th,  Moral  Philosophy;  7th,  Anatomy  and  Medicine;  and  8th, 


32  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 

Law.  To  be  received  into  the  School  of  Ancient  Languages,  the  ap- 
plicant must  be  qualified  to  commence  reading  the  higher  Latin  Clas- 
sics, and,  in  the  same  degree,  Greek,  if  he  proposes  to  enter  that 
class.  For  admission  into  the  Schools  of  Mathematics,  or  Natural 
philosophy  he  must  be  an  adept  in  the  several  branches  of  Numerical 
Arithmetic,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  first  elementary  operations,  in  the 
Rule  of  Three,  in  its  different  forms;  in  Vulgar  and  Decimal  Frac- 
tions, and  extraction  of  the  Square  Root;  and  to  enter  any  School, 
he  must  be  16  years  of  age,  rigorously  proved.  The  Hotels  provided, 
in  the  range  of  the  other  buildings,  are  let  to  house-keepers  of  the 
most  respectable  characters,  who  will  diet  the  Students,  each  with 
the  person  he  chooses,  to  the  end  of  the  term,  at  the  price  before 
mentioned.  They  are  to  find  their  own  bedding,  fuel,  candles,  and 
washing;  for  all  of  which,  however,  they  may  probably  be  able  to 
make  arrangements  with  the  keepers  of  the  hotel  of  their  choice,  or 
otherwise,  as  they  please.  Tuition  fees  must  be  paid,  in  advance,  to 
the  Proctor,  on  whose  receipt  alone  the  Student  will  be  admitted  to 
enter  a  School.  It  is  strongly  recommended  that  all  should  attend 
punctually  on  the  day  of  the  commencement,  that  they  may  enter 
together  on  the  beginning  of  their  course  of  Lectures.  All  letters 
and  applications  respecting  the  premises,  are  to  be  addressed  to 
the  subscriber,  at  the  University,  near  Charlottesville. 

ARTHUR  S.  BROCKENBROUGH, 

Proctor  of  the  University. 
February  16,  1825. 

N.  B.  The  hotel-keepers  will  require  one-half  in  advance,  for 
Board. 

FROM  THE  "RICHMOND  ENQUIRER." 

Friday,    March   4,    1825. 

[page  3,  column  5] 
Communicated. 
To  the  Proctor  of  the  University  of  Virginia: 

Sir:  In  your  advertisement  of  the  16th  instant,  which  appeared  in 
the  National  Intelligencer  of  the  22d,  it  is  stated,  that  "to  be  received 
in  the  School  of  Ancient  languages,  the  applicant  must  be  qualified 
to  commence  reading  the  higher  Latin  Classics,  and  in  the  same 
degree,  Greek,  if  he  proposes  to  enter  that  class."  Pardon  rne,  Sir, 
if  I  say  that  this  mode  of  expression  is  rather  vague  and  indefinite, 
'and  for  the  public  benefit  it  ought  to  be  explicitly  set  forth  what 
books,  and  what  quantity  of  each  should  be  reac1  Hy  a  student,  who 
is  preparing  to  enter  the  University  as  a  classical  pupil.  A  boy  who 
has  read  Ovid  and  Caesar's  Commentaries  is  qualified  to  "commence" 
reading  the  higher  Latin  classics  inasmuch  as  Virgil  may  be  con- 
sidered to  rank  among  the  higher  order  of  the  Ancient  Roman  Poets. 


THE  FIRST  CATALOGUE:  OF  THE:  UNIVERSITY. 


FACULTY  AND  OFFICERS, 


GEORGE   TUCKER, 
CHAIRMAN    OF  THK  FACULTY. 


GEORGE  LONG, 
PROFESSOR  OF  ANCIENT  LANGUAGES. 

GEO.  BLAETTERMANN, 
PROFESSOR  OF  MODERN  LANGUAGES. 

TH:  HEWITT  KEY, 

PROFESSOR  OF  MATHEMATICS. 

CHARLES  BONNYCASTLE, 
PROFESSOR  OF  NATURAL  PHILOSOPHY. 

JOHN  P.  EMMET: 

PROFESSOR  OF  CHEMISTRY. 

GEORGE  TUCKER, 

PROFESSOR  OF  MORAL  PHILOSOPHY. 

ROBLEY  DUNGLISON, 

PROFESSOR  OF  AN.  ANJT>  MEDICINE, 
SECRETARY  OF  THE  FACULTY. 


JOHN  -V.  KEAN, 
LIBRARIAN, 

ARTHUR  S.  BROCKENBROUGH, 

,    PBOOTOR. 
ALEXANDER  GARRETT, 

BOBSAR. 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG  33 

By  the  same  mode  of  argument  a  youth  who  can  translate  and 
parse  St.  John's  Gospel  in  Greek,  is  sufficiently  prepared  to  "com- 
mence" reading  Xenophon's  Cyropede.  The  learned  professors  of 
your  Institution  have  been  wisely  selected  from  Europe,  and  prob- 
ably will  condescend  to  tell  us  what  previous  course  of  preparation 
is  necessary  to  obtain  admission  into  the  School  of  Ancient  lan- 
guages. A  native  of  the  United  States  educated  in  his  own  coun- 
try would  probably  term  Horace  and  Cicero  the  higher  Latin  Clas- 
sics, but  a  graduate  of  an  European  College  would  consider  Tacitus, 
Livy  and  Juvenal  better  entitled  to  that  appellation.  In  this  country 
we  seldom  get  beyond  Homer  in  Greek,  but  a  Transatlantic  Pro- 
fessor of  dead  languages  would  look  upon  a  man,  as  a  mere  Tyro, 
who  had  not  read  Plato,  Aristotle,  Xenophon's  Memorables,  and 
Thucydides  in  Greek.  Excuse,  Sir,  if  you  please,  these  impertinent 
enquiries  from 

AN  EUROPEAN. 
February  25,  1825. 

Such  public  inquiry  explains  to  us  fully  the  considerations 
which  prompted  Mr.  Madison's  suggestion  to  Long  to  prepare  a 
statement  of  his  pedagogical  program  for  the  newspapers  of  Vir- 
ginia. It  seems  clear  that  the  above  correspondent  had  thus  far 
seen  nothing  in  the  Enquirer  in  the  way  of  a  statement  from 
George  Long,  and  that  his  only  knowledge  of  the  proposed  class- 
ical program  was  that  derived  from  the  general  announcement 
of  Proctor  Brockenbrough  as  shown  above.  Let  us  hope  that  we 
may  yet  succeed  in  rinding  among  the  files  of  the  Virginia  news- 
papers of  the  time  Professor  Long's  statement  to  the  people  of 
Virginia  of  his  plans  and  purposes  for  the  School  of  Ancient  Lan- 
guages in  the  University. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  are  not  without  reliable  evidence  of 
his  actual  work  both  within  and  without  the  classroom  during  the 
four  sessions  (1825-1828)  of  his  sojourn  in  the  United  States. 
Among  his  papers  were  found  after  his  death  summaries  of  lec- 
tures on  Greek  and  Roman  history,  ancient  geography,  and  rhet- 
oric, all  marked  as  having  been  delivered  to  his  classes  at  the 
University  of  Virginia.  Moreover,  the  date  1827,  if  correctly 
given  by  Sandys,  of  what  seems  to  have  been  his  earliest 
publication,  "Two  Dissertations  on  Roman  Law,"  would  show 
that  this  work  was  done  while  he  was  at  the  Univer- 
sity. Two  other  publications,  in  which  he  collaborated  with 
other  writers,  belong  to  the  same  period,  and  are  preserved 


34  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 

among  the  treasures  of  our  Library.  The  first  of  these  is  "Ta- 
bles of  Comparative  Etymology  and  Analogous  Formations  in  the 
Greek,  Latin,  Spanish,  Italian,  French,  English,  and  German  Lan- 
guages, by  John  Lewis,  of  Llangollen,  Spottsylvania  County,  Va. 
The  Greek  (and  Latin)  Tables  by  G.  Long.  The  German  by  Dr. 
G.  Blaettermann,  Professors  of  Ancient  and  Modern  Languages 
in  the  University  of  Virginia.  Philadelphia,  Carey,  Lea,  &  Carey. 
1828."  The  Preface  shows  that  this  work  was  completed  in  Jan- 
uary, 1828,  that  is  in  the  winter  before  Long's  return  to  England. 
The  other  work  is  "An  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Grecian  and 
Roman  Geography,  by  George  Long,  Esq.,  late  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Virginia,  now  of  the  University  of  London.  And  Robley 
Dunglison,  M.  D.,  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  Charlottesville, 
Virginia.  Published  by  F.  Carr  &  Co.  1829."  The  Preface  by 
Professor  Long  indicates  that  his  part  of  the  work  was  completed 
at  the  University  of  Virginia  on  July  9,  1828.  A  footnote  by  Dr. 
Dunglison  states  that  his  own  share  in  the  task  (the  chapter  on 
Aethiopia,  and  Part  III  on  Roman  Geography)  was  "undertaken 
by  desire  of  Mr.  Long,  from  his  inability  to  accomplish  them  be- 
fore his  departure  from  this  country."  The  "Introduction  to  the 
Study  of  Grecian  and  Roman  Geography"  represents  therefore 
the  closing  labors  of  Long  at  the  University  of  Virginia.  Twenty- 
five  years  later,  as  we  learn  from  his  letter  to  Henry  Tutwiler  of 
Apr.  11,  1853,  from  Brighton,  Sussex,  we  find  him  again  at  work 
in  this  field.  "I  am  at  work,"  he  says,  "on  a  small  classical  Atlas 
for  schools.  I  hope  I  shall  make  a  pretty  good  job  of  it.  But  it 
is  very  tiresome  work,  and  is  the  last  job  of  the  kind  that  I  will 
undertake."  This  Atlas  was  reproduced  in  America  in  1856  by 
Blanchard  &  Lea  of  Philadelphia  under  title  "An  Atlas  of  Class- 
ical Geography,  Constructed  by  William  Hughes,  and  Edited  by 
George  Long,  Formerly  Professor  of  Ancient  Languages  in  the 
University  of  Virginia." 


OF  GEORGE  IX)NG  35 


II.  THE  RETURN  TO  ENGLAND  :    PERIOD  BEFORE  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

Strong  and  wholesome  as  the  salt  breeze  that  blows  off  the 
white  cliffs  of  Dover  was  the  spirit  of  this  classical  pioneer  and 
cultural  immigrant  to  Virginia,  George  Long,  Fellow  of  Trinity, 
as  he  cheerily  embarked  from  the  shores  of  old  England  in  mid- 
October  of  1824.  The  year  before  in  1823  he  had  won  his  Cam- 
bridge fellowship  over  the  head  of  young  Thomas  Babington  Ma- 
caulay,  and  now  the  task  he  had  undertaken  with  such  courage 
and  alacrity  was  no  less  in  effect  than  to  inaugurate  in  the  New 
World  the  modern  science  of  philology,  as  it  had  just  been  rein- 
terpreted and  reconstituted  in  Europe*  by  its  great  German 


*George  Ticknor  to  Francis  Walker  Gilmer:  Gottingen,  1816. 
I  too  have  changed  my  plans.  I  have  renounced  the  law  altogether, 
and  determined  to  prolong  my  stay  in  Europe,  that  I  may  do  some- 
thing towards  making  myself  a  scholar,  and  perhaps  you  will  smile, 
when  I  add  that  my  determining  motive  to  this  decision,  of  which 
I  have  long  thought,  was  the  admirable  means  and  facilities  and  in- 
ducements to  study  offered  by  a  German  University.  But  however 
you  may  smile  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  you  would  if 
you  were  on  this  do  just  as  I  have  done.  My  inclination  is 
entirely  and  exclusively  to  literature — the  only  question  with  me, 
therefore,  was,  where  I  could  best  fit  myself  to  pursue  hand  passibus 
aequis  its  future  progress  and  improvement.  In  England  I  found  that 
the  vigorous  spirit  of  youth  was  already  fled  though  to  be  sure  in  its 
place  I  found  a  green  and  honorable  old  age — in  France,  where  litera- 
ture, its  progress  and  success  was  always  much  more  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  court  than  it  ever  was  in  any  other  age  or  country 
if  Rome  under  Augustus  be  excepted,  in  France  it  has  long  been  the 
sport  of  political  revolutions  and  seems  at  last  to  be  buried  amidst 
the  ruins  of  national  independence, — and  in  the  south  of  Europe,  in 
Portugal,  Spain,  and  Italy  centuries  have  passed  over  its  grave.  In 
Germany,  however,  where  the  spirit  of  letters  first  began  to  be  felt 
a  little  more  than  half  a  century  ago,  all  is  still  new  and  young,  and 
the  working  of  this  untried  spirit  starting  forth  in  fresh  strength, 
and  with  all  the  advantages  which  the  labour  and  experience  of  other 
nations  can  give  it  are  truly  astonishing.  In  America,  indeed,  we 
have  but  little  of  these  things,  for  our  knowledge  of  all  Europe  is 
either  derived  from  the  French,  whose  totally  different  manners  and 
language  and  character  prevent  them  from  even  conceiving  those  of 
Germany,  or  from  England,  whose  ancient  prejudices  against  every- 
thing continental  as  yet  prevent  them  from  receiving  as  it  deserves 
a  kindred  literature.  Still,  however,  the  English  scholars  have  found 
out  that  the  Germans  are  far  before  them  in  the  knowledge  of  an- 
tiquity, so  that  if  you  look  into  an  English  treatise  on  Bibliography 
you  will  find  nine-tenths  of  the  best  editions  of  the  classics  to  be 


36  BETTERS  OF  GEORGE  I<ONG 

founder,  Fried-rich  August  Wolf  (1739-1824).  Under  the  lead 
of  Germany  the  science  of  antiquity  had  entered  the  hierarchy 
of  the  independent  sciences  as  the  full-orbed  science  of  the  pro- 
ducts of  the  classic  spirit,  whose  task  was  to  reconstruct  for  hu- 
manity the  total  spiritual  history  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  world. 
What  Jefferson  and  the  Board  of  Visitors  of  the  University  of 
Virginia  expected  of  George  Long,  as  of  the  other  European 
professors,  and  what  he  and  they  recognized  as  their  high  mis- 
sion, was  to  provide  America  with  something  it  had  never  had 
before,  a  true  University  of  untrammeled  science  and  instruc- 
tion. Long's  particular  task  was  to  lay  the  foundation  in  Vir- 
ginia for  the  scientific  study  of  the  language,  literature,  and  life 
of  the  classic  world,  and  the  reason  why  he  had  been  summoned 
from  Europe  to  accomplish  this  "fair  beginning  of  a  time"  was 
of  course  because  America  afforded  its  own  citizens  no  such 
equipment  for  the  task.*  Upon  first  sight,  as  we  have  seen,  Mr. 


German; — and  Mad.  de  Stael  has  told  the  world,  tho'  to  be  sure 
very  imperfectly  and  unworthily,  what  a  genial  and  original  literature 
has  sprung  up  in  Germany  within  the  last  50  years  like  a  volcano  from 
the  wastes  and  depths  of  the  ocean.  But  it  is  not  what  they  have  al- 
ready done,  or  what  they  are  at  this  moment  doing,  astonishing  as 
both  are,  which  makes  me  hope  so  much  from  these  Germans.  It  is 
the  free  and  philosophical  spirit  with  which  they  do  it — the  contempt 
of  all  ancient  forms  considered  as  such,  and  the  exemption  from  all 
prejudice — above  all,  the  unwearied  activity  with  which  they  push 
forward,  and  the  high  objects  they  propose  to  themselves — it  is  this, 
that  makes  me  feel  sure  Germany  is  soon  to  leave  all  the  rest  of  the 
world  very  far  behind  in  the  course  of  improvement — and  it  was  this 
that  determined  me  to  remain  here  rather  than  to  pursue  my  studies 
in  countries  where  this  high  spirit  has  faded  away. — For  the  whole 
letter,  see  Trent's  Appendix  to  English  Culture  in  Virginia,  pp.  131ff. 

*Jefferson  to  General  Breckenridge:     Monticello,  1822. 

Our  aim  (in  establishing  the  University  of  Virginia)  is  the  se- 
curing to  our  country  a  full  and  perpetual  institution  for  all  the  use- 
ful sciences. 

Jefferson  to  Mr.  Roscoe:   Monticello,  1820. 

This  institution  (the  University  of  Virginia)  will  be  based  on  the 
illimitable  freedom  of  the  human  mind.  For  here  we  are  not  afraid 
to  follow  truth  wherever  it  may  lead,  nor  to  tolerate  any  error  so 
long  as  reason  is  left  free  to  combat  it. 

Jefferson  to  Dr.  Thomas  Cooper:  Monticello,  1820. 

I  contemplate  the  University  of  Virginia  as  the  future  bulwark  of 
the  human  mind  in  this  hemisphere. 

Jefferson  to  John  Adams:  Monticello,  1819. 

Our  wish  is  to  procure  natives  (for  professors)  where  they  can 
be  found  of  the  first  order  of  requirement  in  their  respective  lines; 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG  37 

Jefferson  was  evidently  somewhat  dismayed  at  George  Long's 
youthful  appearance,  but  within  the  first  month  of  their  inter- 
course he  recognized  him  to  be  "a  most  amiable  man,  of  fine 
understanding,  well  qualified  for  his  department,  and  acquiring 
esteem  as  fast  as  he  becomes  known." 

We  have  already  become  sufficiently  familiar  with  Long's 
charmingly  discursive  letters  to  Henry  Tutwiler  to  realize  their 
interest  and  value  for  the  historian  of  the  men  and  times  to  which 
they  relate.  Because  of  their  intimate,  personal  nature  they  often 
illumine  things  and  aspects  of  things  that  would  otherwise  defy 
the  search  of  <he  inquirer.  We  even  get  an  impression  of  what 
manner  of  physical  man  this  George  Long  must  have  been:  of 
typical  .English  mould,  erect  and  well-knit,  "neither  fat  nor  lean," 
as  he  later  says  of  himself,  quiet  and  unobtrusive  in  manner,  but 
withal  dignified  and  even  soldierly  in  bearing,  kindly  and  genial 
in  intercourse,  and  strikingly  forceful  and  interesting  in  con- 
versation.* 


but,  preferring  foreigners  of  the  first  order  to  natives  of  the  sec- 
ond, we  shall  certainly  have  to  go  for  several  of  our  professors  to 
countries  more  advanced  in  science  than  we  are. 

Jefferson  to  John  Adams:  Monticello,  1825. 

In  some  departments  of  science  we  believe  Europe  to  be  in  ad- 
vance before  us,  and  that  it  would  advance  ourselves  were  we  to 
draw  from  thence  instructors  in  these  branches,  and  thus  to  improve 
our  science,  as  we  have  done  our  manufactures,  by  borrowed  skill. 
I  have  been  much  squibbed  for  this,  perhaps  by  disappointed  appli- 
cants for  professorships  to  which  they  were  deemed  incompetent 

*Burwell  Stark,  Alumnus  of  1825:     ALUMNI  BULLETIN,   May,   1894. 

Professor  Long,  who  was  an  Englishman,  made  a  very  popular,  en- 
thusiastic, and  efficient  teacher.  He  was  quite  a  handsome  man,  and 
a  very  agreeable  and  sociable  companion.  He  took  his  meals  at  the 
hotel  where  some  other  pupils  and  myself  boarded,  and  we  were 
very  much  attached  to  him.  Always  taking  part  in  our  conversation, 
he  made  us  feel  at  ease  in  his  presence. 

By  some  he  would  have  been  considered  sufficiently  below  the 
medium  physical  size  to  be  called  small;  and  he  frequently  waited  on 
Miss  Grey,  daughter  of  the  proprietor  of  our  hotel.  I  remember  dis- 
tinctly how  the  students  would  plague  her  by  perverting  and  quoting 
for  her  benefit  the  following  couplet: 

"Man  wants  but  little  here  below, 
Nor  wants  that  little  long." 

They  would  substitute  "but"  for  "nor"  in  the  second  line,  and,  if 
they  wrote  it,  would  begin  the  word  "long"  with  a  capital. 


38  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 

In  1828  during  the  fourth  year  of  George  Long's  tenure  of 
office  as  Professor  of  Ancient  Languages  in  the  University  of 
Virginia,  and  just  as  the  initial  difficulties  that  attended  his 
pioneer  efforts  in  the  cause  of  university  education  in  the  Old 
Dominion  and  the  South  were  'beginning  to  clear  up,  and  to  leave 
him,  as  he  expressed  it  in  retrospect  fifty  years  later,  "quite  happy 
during  the  last  year  of  his  residence  in  Virginia,"  came  the  invi- 
tation to  return  to  England  as  professor  of  Greek  in  the  newly- 
founded  University  of  London.  The  year  before  in  1827  his  old 
friend  of  Cambridge  days  and  colleague  in  the  Chair  of 
Mathematics  at  the  University  of  Virginia,  Thomas  Hewett  Key, 
had  resigned  his  Virginia  professorship  and  gone  back  home, 
himself  to  be  chosen  the  following  year  as  professor  of  Latin  in 
the  new  foundation  in  London.  For  Long  also  the  call  of  the 
blood  was  too  strong,  and  despite  his  republican  leanings,  his 
Virginia  widow,  and  his  predilection  for  Virginia  corn  bread, 
he  followed  Key's  -example,  resigned  his  position,  vacated  Pa- 
vilion No.  5,  and  turned  his  back  on  our  beautiful  mountains 
never  to  return  again,  but  not,  we  may  be  sure,  without  casting 
at  least  "one  longing,  lingering  look  behind." 

For  his  letters  to  Henry  Tutwiler,  which  we  are  now  about  to 
read  in  full  and  in  chronological  order,  reveal  a  strangely  abiding 
and  even  warmer-growing  interest  in  America  in  general  and  in 
Virginia  and  the  South  in  particular  to  the  very  close  of  their 
author's  life  on  earth.  Rarely  a  letter  escapes  his  pen  without 
the  ever-recurring  note  of  longing  to  return  to  America  and  end 
his  days  in  the  land  of  his  early  adoption, — "with  some  land  and 
some  pupils,  a  bit  of  farming  and  teaching,"  as  he  expresses  it 
with  Cato-like  simplicity.  Strangely  interesting  and  suggestive 
too  now-a-days  is  the  attitude  of  George  Long,  the  English 
scholar  and  historian  of  the  third  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, not  alone  towards  America,  but  also  towards  the  England, 
France,  and  Germany  of  his  time.  But  the  supreme  revelation 
of  these  worn  and  tattered  letters  is  the  mirror-clear  outline  they 
reflect  of  the  strong,  free,  staunch  Northman,  of  the  sagacious, 
unwearied  scholar,  of  the  faithful  teacher  and  friend. 


OF  GEORGE  LONG  39 

GEORGE    LONG    TO     HENRY    TUTWILER. 

March  26,  1850. 
5    York   Place, 
Brighton,   Sussex. 
My  dear   Sir: 

I  was  very  glad  to  see  a  letter  from  you  once  more.  I  have  often 
reproached  myself  with  not  answering  one  which  I  received  some 
years  back.  It  came  near  the  time  of  a  removal,  and  it  was  lost.  I 
looked  in  vain  for  it,  and  I  had  not  taken  the  precaution  to  enter  your 
address  in  a  book. 

I  am  now  living  at  Brighton,  on  the  south  coast,  and  I  hold  the 
place  of  classical  lecturer  here,  for  which  they  give  me  a  salary  of 
£500,  somewhat  less  than  $2,500.  This  is  more  than  a  layman  can 
generally  get  in  England,  but  it  is  not  enough  for  my  expenses,  and 
I  make  out  the  rest  by  literary  labor.  Your  account  of  your  posi- 
tion is  very  tempting.  I  have  no  doubt  that  you  have  done  right  in 
leaving  the  college  and  setting  up  for  yourself.  They  are  troublesome 
places  everywhere,  and  the  pay  is  indifferent.  They  are  just  founding 
a  new  college  at  Manchester  in  the  North  of  England,  for  which  a 
Manchester  merchant  has  left  £100,000.  The  trustees  offer  low  sala- 
ries and  an  immense  quantity  of  work.  There  is  to  be  a  principal, 
who  is  to  hold  one  of  the  three  principal  professorships,  which  are 
very  comprehensive,  to  discharge  all  the  duties  of  superintendence 
and  government,  and  perhaps  to  teach  religion,  as  they  say,  for  all  which 
he  is  to  receive  about  the  same  that  I  receive  here;  besides  fees 
however,  but  they  are  put  very  low. 

Classical  studies  are  the  fashion  here,  but  they  are  in  my  opinion 
in  a  low  state.  I  am  not  fond  of  exercise  books  and  rules.  It  seems 
to  me  that  the  time  is  spent  rather  about  the  language  than  actually 
upon  it  and  the  best  authors.  I  shall  publish  in  a  few  months  an  edi- 
tion of  Cicero's  Cato  Major,  Laelius,  and  some  letters  of  Cicero,  with 
notes  and  a  preface,  in  which  I  have*  explained  my  views.  I  hope  also 
to  have  ready  by  the  end  of  this  year  or  the  beginning  of  next  an 
edition,  with  Notes  and  Excursuses,  of  the  Verrine  orations  of  Cicero. 
Both  books  are  to  be  published  by  G.  Bell,  186  Fleet  St.,  London. 
Anthon's  books  are  well  known  here,  and  even  edited  over  again  by 
tenth  rate  scholars,  who  put  money  in  their  pockets.  We  banish 
them  and  all  like  rubbish  from  our  college  here.  You  are  probably 
aware  that  the  clergy  are  the  great  body  of  teachers  here.  Many  of 
them  are  very  ignorant,  though  they  do  not  think  so;  and  those  who 
have  some  scholarship,  have  it  in  a  peculiar  sort,  not  to  my  taste; 
it  is  neither  manly  nor  invigorating,  as  they  display  it.  Our  church 
of  England  clergy  are  very  busy  at  present  with  the  doctrine  of 
baptismal  regeneration,  and  also  with  looking  after  their  money;  the 
latter  no  doubt  in  good  earnest. 

I  was  engaged  to  superintend  a  new  edition  of  the  P.  C.,  but  the 


40  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 

publisher  broke  off  his  engagement.  He  has  begun  a  kind  of  new 
edition  in  separate  Cyclopaedias,  but  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  it 
in  any  way.  I  have  no  hopes  that  it  will  ever  be  completed,  and  I 
advise  you  to  see  it,  before  you  buy  it.  It  is  on  the  cheap  plan.  I 
mean  the  literary  labor  is  to  be  paid  for  at  a  low  rate,  and  it  will  be 
done  accordingly. 

If  I  could  do  just  as  I  like,  I  would  come  to  the  U.  S.,  but  I  have 
four  sons*  to  look  after.  One  has  a  pretty  good  place  in  the  Com- 
missariat. The  other  three  cost  me  a  great  deal.  I  do  not  like 
England,  and  never  did.  I  do  not  like  everything  in  the  U.  S.,  but 
you  have  many  great  advantages,  which  we  have  not.  I  am  now  49 
years  of  age,  and  I  have  very  good  health,  and  can  do  more  work  than 
ever  I  did.  If  I  came  to  America  I  should  like  some  land  and  some 
pupils,  a  bit  of  farming  and  teaching.  There  are  many  advantages  in 
settling  in  the  southern  states;  but  slavery,  though  it  is  not  an  un- 
mitigated evil,  is  still  one.  I  certainly  should  not  like  to  end  my 
days  here  and  if  I  feel  my  health  and  strength  last  so  that  I  may 
probably  reach  a  good  age,  you  may  see  me  yet. 

I  do  not  know  any  good  text  book  on  ancient  geog.,  though  there 
are  many.  If  the  boys  always  use  maps,  and  the  teacher  were  to  give 
them  a  short  lecture  now  and  then,  followed  by  an  examination,  I 
think  no  book  would  be  found  necessary.  Can  you  not  get  the  U. 
K.  maps  by  ordering  them  of  a  bookseller?  They  are  cheap,  12 
cents  a  piece,  and  better  than  Butler's.  As  you  ask  about  my  doings 
of  late,  I  must  tell  you  I  have  published  translations  of  thirteen  of 
Plutarch's  Roman  Lives  with  notes  in  Knight's  Weekly  Volumes. 
They  are  Is  (25c.)  a  volume.  There  has  also  appeared  a  new  im- 
proved edition  of  Smith's  dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Antiquities. 
I  have  renewed  all  my  articles  on  Roman  Law.  I  do  not  know  if 
Anthon  has  laid  his  Harpy  hands  on  the  new  edition  yet,  as  he  did 
on  the  first.  In  due  time  he  will  I  suppose.  If  you  have  not  got 
Key's  Latin  Grammar,  I  would  recommend  you  to  get  it.  You  will 
find  it  a  most  useful  book.  Key  is  working  at  a  Latin  Dictionary, 
which  I  have  no  doubt  will  be  the  best  thing  of  the  kind.  It  will 
not  be  a  large  book.  We  have  numerous  school  books  published  in 
England,  but  I  know  little  of  them.  I  only  use  the  Greek  and  Roman 
texts,  and  give  the  boys  my  own  explanations.  I  want  to  teach  them 
the  languages  well,  to  give  them  a  competent  knowledge  of  the  mat- 
ter, and  a  vigorous  and  healthy  love  of  ancient  literature,  for  which 


*While  at  the  University  of  Virginia  Long  married,  as  we  have 
already  learned  from  his  letter  of  reminiscences  to  Henry  Tutwiler, 
Mrs.  Harriet  Selden,  sister-in-law  of  Proctor  Arthur  S.  Brocken- 
brough  of  the  University,  and  widow  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Joseph 
Selden  of  the  United  States  Army.  The  fruit  of  this  union  was  four 
sons,  the  eldest  of  whom  was  born  at  the  University  of  Virginia,  and 
one  daughter,  who  died  in  infancy.  He  was  married  twice  subse- 
quently. 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG  41 

purpose  a  teacher  is  required  and  good  texts,  and  very  little  more. 
The  old  fashion  in  England  was  to  study  the  originals;  now  in  their 
stead  boys  study  exercise  books  and  rules,  and  heartily  are  they  tired 
of  it. 

I  think  the  people  in  the  U.  S.  have  the  opportunity  of  becoming 
really  good  scholars  in  a  useful  way,  quite  as  much  as  we  have — 
but  they  must  have  good  teachers.  We  are  certainly  improving 
within  the  last  few  years,  owing  mainly  as  I  believe  to  the  example 
of  University  College,  London;  but  we  have  a  great  deal  to  do  yet, 
before  we  have  a  real  good  body  of  teachers.  And  I  do  not  think 
that  we  shall  have  them  till  education  is  more  in  the  hands  of  lay- 
men. The  parsons  have  one  eye  on  their  pupils  —  another  on  church 
preferment.  Besides,  a  parson  generally  does  not  teach  because  he 
likes  it  or  has  an  aptitude  for  it.  He  first  becomes  a  parson,  be- 
cause he  is  fit  for  nothing  else;  and  then  he  takes  pupils  to  support 
himself  in  his  ecclesiastical  vocation  till  he  can  get  something  better. 

I  should  like  a  country  where  there  is  a  good  climate,  land  cheap, 
and  taxes  light.  I  do  not  care  much  about  society,  for  I  have  none 
here;  but  still  it  would  be  pleasant  to  have  a  sensible  man  to  talk 
to  now  and  then.  A  small  farm  of  my  own  in  a  pleasant  healthy 
situation,  where  the  sun  shines  often,  and  employment  in  teaching 
some  boys  who  are  willing  to  learn  would  suit  me  better  than  any- 
thing else.  Is  land  still  reasonable  in  Alabama,  and  titles  good?  I 
have  just  found  your  place  on  the  U.  S.  map.  I  suppose  that  you 
are  in  the  hilly  country,  at  least  not  in  the  flat,  and  a  few  hundred  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  sea,  with  moderate  heat  and  little  winter.  I 
have  always  thought  that  North  Alabama  and  Tennessee  were  about 
the  best  part  of  the  U.  S.  for  climate.  I  am  very  fond  of  agricul- 
ture and  gardening,  a  taste  I  can't  indulge  here.  Land  is  too  dear  to 
purchase,  and  rents  are  high,  though  the  repeal  of  the  corn  laws  is 
bringing  them  down.  We  have  had  a  cold  and  dreary  winter  since  the 
beginning  of  November,  and  we  have  winter  fires  still  burning.  A  few 
years  might  decide  me  to  take  [make?]  some  move.  My  chief  reason  for 
staying  here  is  my  youngest  boy,  who  promises  to  be  a  good  scholar, 
and  he  might  do  well  at  the  Universities.  But  I  suppose  he  would  do 
quite  as  well  in  America.  I  have  another  boy  at  home,  who  is  fit  for 
nothing.  Perhaps  I  may  send  him  off  to  sea.  I  have  one  in  Lon- 
don studying  the  law,  the  lad  who  was  born  at  the  Univ.  of  Virginia. 
In  a  year  or  two  he  will  be  a  very  good  lawyer,  and  I  suppose  he 
could  get  his  living  in  the  U.  S.  Write  me  a  long  letter  soon  and 
tell  me  all  about  N.  Alabama.  If  I  do  not  come  to  see  you,  I  shall 
be  glad  to  know  something  more  of  the  country.  Is  there  any  wine 
making  going  on  yet?  Perhaps  it  will  take  some  time  before  this 
branch  of  industry  is  established  among  you. 

I  have  written  you  a  long  letter  to  make  amends  for  my  neglect. 
I  should  be  very  glad  to  see  you  here  and  I  dare  say  you  would  be 


42  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 

pleased  with  the  visit.  It  is  a  great  gratification  to  find  that  one  of 
my  old  pupils  has  not  forgotten  me,  and  I  assure  you  that  I  have  not 
forgotten  you.  I  am  much  obliged  for  your  sending  your  scheme  of 
education,  which  is  very  comprehensive. 

Yours  very  truly, 

GEORGE  LONG. 

12  Hanover  Crescent,  Brighton,  Sussex, 

April   11,   1853. 
My  dear  Sir, 

I  do  not  recollect  if  I  owe  you  a  letter,  or  if  you  are  my  debtor. 
It  is  however  a  very  long  time  since  I  heard  from  you  or  wrote  to 
you.  Months  and  even  years  pass  so  quick,  and  life  slips  away  unob- 
served. 

I  should  like  to  know  that  you  are  well.  Communication  is  now 
easy  and  quick,  but  all  people  seem  to  have  a  difficulty  about  writing 
letters,  if  the  business  is  not  urgent.  I  have  just  written  to  Harrison, 
from  whom  I  have  not  heard  for  a  long  time. 

My  family  is  fast  dispersing  over  the  earth.  One  son  is  in  China, 
and  another  in  New  Zealand;  another  in  London,  and  the  youngest  still 
at  home.  I  think  that  I  shall  leave  England  if  I  live  till  June  twelve- 
month. The  only  countries  that  I  can  go  to  are  yours  or  New  Zea- 
land. These  two  islands  of  Zealand,  though  little  settled  yet,  are  the 
best  acquisition  that  Great  Britain  has  made.  The  area  is  perhaps 
as  much  as  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  Pennsylvania.  The  climate  is  ex- 
cellent, the  soil  generally  good,  and  the  country  well  adapted  both  for 
agriculture  and  sheep  feeding.  The  voyage  is  long  at  present,  be- 
tween 3  and  4  months,  and  that  is  a  great  objection. 

My  youngesl  son,  who  is  just  fifteen,  is  a  clever  youth,  a  very  good 
scholar,  with  a  turn  for  chemistry,  mechanics,  and  the  like.  He  is  not 
inclined  to  go  to  our  Universities,  and  would  prefer  an  active  life,  such 
as  that  of  a  sheep  farmer  in  Zealand.  I  don't  see  what  he  could  do 
in  the  United  States.  I  think  he  would  not  do  for  a  doctor,  or  a 
lawyer,  or  a  politician.  Your  farming  is  chiefly  arable,  and  if  labor  is 
to  be  hired,  as  it  must  be  in  a  free  state,  it  may  be  that  farming  is 
not  a  profitable  employment. 

If  I  were  to  settle  in  America,  I  should  prefer  Pennsylvania,  and 
that  part  which  extends  from  Gettysburg  along  the  hills,  or  the  part 
further  west  from  Hagerstown  and  Maryland  northwards,  where  I 
suppose  there  is  more  grass  and  more  room  for  cattle  feeding.  I 
should  not  dislike  to  be  among  or  near  the  German  population  for 
they  are  good  kind  of  people,  and  I  could  get  on  with  them,  as  I  can 
speak  their  language.  I  fear  however  that  purchases  of  land  in  Penn- 
sylvania in  a  pleasant  and  good  position  woud  be  difficult  and  that  the 
land  would  be  dear.  It  is  not  cheap  in  Zealand,  but  it  may  be  had 
for  about  $8  the  acre;  and  the  pasture  land  is  on  a  small  rent,  not 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG  43 

unlike  the  Roman  "scriptura."  Your  cold  winters  and  hot  summers 
are  an  objection.  I  was  surprised  at  what  you  told  me  of  the  length 
of  the  time  in  Alabama  during  which  you  must  have  fires.  I  think 
you  once  said  that  I  might  make  something  in  the  U.  S.  by  books. 
You  probably  meant  schoolbooks,  but  I  have  little  inclination  for  that, 
unless  it  should  be  an  edition  of  a  classical  author  or  two.  I  have 
lately  published  an  edition  of  Caesar's  Gallic  War  which  has  been 
well  received  here.  I  would  rather  write  on  historical,  political,  and 
moral  subjects,  and  perhaps  I  should  get  nothing  that  way.  I  have  not 
the  slightest  notion  in  what  state  the  book  trade  is  in  America.  No 
doubt  that  there  is  a  vast  number  of  books  in  schools  and  colleges;  but 
I  suppose  it  is  with  you  as  with  us,  the  greatest  number  of  books 
belongs  to  what  is  very  properly  called  light  literature. 

I  am  not  inclined  to  school  keeping  or  to  a  professor's  place,  even 
if  I  could  get  one.  I  could  pass  my  time  in  looking  after  a  bit  of 
land  and  writing.  Hog  feeding  is  a  great  business  in  some  parts  of 
the  Union,  but  I  suppose  that  a  man  must  go  to  Ohio  for  that. 

I  saw  Mr.  Key  the  other  day.  He  is  very  well,  but  very  fat.  I 
am  neither  fat  nor  lean.  I  have  very  good  health.  1  shall  be  glad 
to  hear  that  all  is  well  with  you. 

I  read  a  good  deal  about  America  in  the  papers,  but  I  cannot  well 
understand  the  state  of  affairs.  Things  are  probably  much  altered 
since  I  was  among  you,  whether  for  better  or  worse,  I  cannot  tell. 
You  are  fortunately  situated,  if  you  have  the  prudence  to  keep  quiet, 
which  I  doubt.  We  in  Europe  live  in  expectation  of  revolutions, 
which  in  continental  Europe  seem  inevitable.  Our  insular  position 
makes  us  tolerably  safe,  if  we  have  ordinary  foresight  There  is  a 
great  ferment  of  opinion  on  all  questions  among  us,  and  I  see  that 
you  are  not  free  from  it.  The  social  evils  are  many,  and  we  all  think 
how  they  may  be  diminished.  Thought  is  now  active  all  over  the 
world,  and  when  expression  of  it  is  free,  we  may  expect  to  hear  many 
strange  things.  The  Frenchman  is  silent  now,  he  who  is  the  great 
expounder  of  impracticable  theories.  A  man  has  put  a  bit  in  his  mouth, 
or  rather  a  gag.  It  is  ludicrous  to  see  a  French  newspaper.  The 
smallest  town  in  the  United  States,  which  has  a  paper,  has  a  better 
one  than  any  Paris  Journal.  So  it  is  in  Germany.  The  papers  con- 
tain nothing. 

I  am  at  work  on  a  small  classical  Atlas  for  schools.  I  hope  I  shall 
make  a  pretty  good  job  of  it.  But  it  is  very  tiresome  work,  and  is  the 
last  job  of  the  kind  that  I  will  undertake. 

I  remain 

Your  sincere  friend, 

GEORGE  LONG. 

The  quarter  of  a  century  following  George  Long's  return  to 
England  and  immediately  preceding  our  Civil  War  in  America 


44  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 

represents  in  his  career  a  period  of  wide  and  varied  scientific, 
literary,  and  educational  activity.  The  record  of  this  remarkable 
productivity  may  be  studied  in  detail  in  Sidney  Lee's  Dictionary 
of  National  Biography,  in  which  the  article  on  Long  has  had  the 
benefit  of  revision  at  the  hands  of  his  special  biographer,  Mr. 
H.  J.  Mathews.  Other  bibliographies  of  his  work  may  be  found 
in  the  English  Cyclopaedia,  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  and 
Sandys'  History  of  Classical  Scholarship.  Sandys,  however, 
seems  to  have  erred  in  attributing  "Two  Dissertations  on  Roman 
Law"  to  Long's  Virginia  period,  namely  1827.  Let  us  forthwith 
record  succinctly  for  our  own  archives  the  stately  story,  beginning 
with  the  return  to  England  in  1828  and  ending  with  our  Civil 
War. 

The  University  of  London  opened  its  doors  on  the  first  of 
October  of  that  year,  when  Long  published  his  "Introductory 
Lecture  Delivered  in  the  University  of  London,"  London,  1828, 
8vo.,  on  the  subject  of  the  Greek  language.  The  next  year  ap- 
peared "A  Summary  of  Herodotus,"  1829,  12  mo.,  followed  in 
1830  by  two  publications,  "Observations  on  the  Study  of  the 
Latin  and  Greek  Languages,"  London,  1830,  8vo.,  and  a  text 
edition  of  Herodotus,  1830-3,  8vo.  The  latter  work,  like  many 
other  publications  of  Long  intended  for  classroom  use,  was 
frequently  republished  in  new  editions.  In  the  same  year  of 
1830  Long,  who  was  exceptionally  versed  in  both  modern  and 
ancient  geography,  cooperated  in  founding  the  Royal  Geograph- 
ical Society,  making  subsequently  special  contributions  to  Vol- 
umes III.  and  XII.  of  the  Society's  Journal,  as  well  as  to  Smith's 
Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Geography.  In  1831  appeared 
his  "Xenophon's  Anabasis,"  which  ran  through  three  successive 
editions.  In  that  year  Long  resigned  his  professorship  in  the 
University  of  London,  then  called  University  College,  and  began 
to  edit  for  the  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge 
its  Quarterly  Journal  of  Education,  becoming  a  most  zealous  and 
laborious  member  of  the  Committee,  and  publishing  for  the  So- 
ciety the  following  year  his  "Egyptian  Antiquities"  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  corresponding  treasures  of  the  British  Museum.  In 
1833  Long  undertook  the  formidable  task  of  editing  for  the  S.  D. 
U.  K.  the  Penny  Cyclopaedia,  which  he  brought  to  completion 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG  45 

in  1846  in  twenty-nine  volumes.  In  1838-9  appeared  the  papers 
published  for  the  Central  Society  of  Education  in  London.  His 
treatise  on  "Grammar  Schools"  prepared  for  Knight's  Store  of 
Knowledge  appeared  in  1841.  In  the  same  year  he  prepared  for 
the  S.  D.  U.  K.  his  "Geography  of  America  and  the  West  Indies," 
showing  that  breadth  of  geographic  interest  and  knowledge  which 
was  so  peculiar  to  him.  The  following  year  in  1842  Long  con- 
tributed to  Smith's  Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Antiquities 
the  articles  on  Roman  Law,  in  which  field  he  was  probably  the 
leading  authority  in  Great  Britain,  and  became  editor  and  con- 
tributor to  the  Biographical  Dictionary  of  the  Society  for  the 
Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge.  It  was  in  this  year  that  Long 
succeeded  Key  as  professor  of  Latin  in  University  College.  In 
1843  he  begai)  his  contributions  to  Smith's  Dictionary  of  Greek 
and  Roman  Biography.  In  1844-8  appeared  his  "Civil  Wars  of 
Rome"  in  connection  with  translations  of  thirteen  of  Plutarch's 
Lives  with  notes,  and  during  the  same  period  he  made  his  con- 
tributions to  the  Classical  Museum.  In  1845-6  Long  published 
his  "Political  Dictionary"  embodying  articles  from  the  Penny 
Cyclopaedia  with  additions  and  corrections.  For  the  year  1847 
Sidney  Lee's  Dictionary  of  National  Biography  credits  Long 
with  a  publication  entitled  "Two  Discourses  on  Roman  Law," 
recalling  a  similar  title  "Two  Dissertations  on  Roman  Law" 
cited  by  Sandys,  History  of  Classical  Scholarship,  III.  430,  and 
referred  to  the  year  1827,  which  would  accordingly  fall  within 
the  period  of  Long's  sojourn  in  America.  In  view,  however,  of 
the  general  course  of  Long's  scientific  evolution  Sandys'  data 
seems  inaccurate,  and  the  two  titles  represent  doubtless  one  and 
the  same  publication,  referable  to  the  year  1847  and  not  to  the 
Virginia  period.  In  1849  Long  became  Classical  Lecturer  in 
Brighton  College,  and  from  that  time  until  1854  he  contributed 
to  Bell's  English  Journal  of  Education.  It  was  probably  about 
the  year  1850  that  he  prepared  in  collaboration  with  G.  R.  Porter 
for  the  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowledge  his  "Geog- 
raphy of  Great  Britain."  To  the  same  period  belong  also  his 
"France  and  Its  Revolutions,"  1850,  8vo.,  and  his  edition  of  Ci- 
cero's "Cato  Maior,  Laelius,  and  Epistolae  Selectae,"  1850,  8vo., 
the  latter  text  appearing  in  a  second  edition  in  1853.  From  1851 


46  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  IX)NG 

to  1858  he  was  engaged  in  editing  his  famous  "Cicero's  Orations" 
for  the  Bibliotheca  Classica  Series,  founded  and  edited  by  Long 
in  collaboration  with  H.  J.  Macleane.  In  1853  Long  published 
his  school  edition  of  Caesar's  Gallic  War,  which  was  republished 
in  a  second  edition  in  1859.  In  1854  he  brought  out  his  "Atlas 
of  Classical  Geography,"  which  was  republished  in  1874,  and 
during  the  present  writer's  student  days  at  the  University 
of  Virginia  (1879-83)  was  a  highly  valued  reference  book.  At 
about  the  same  time  at  which  he  prepared  the  larger  Atlas  we 
find  him  busied,  as  he  writes  to  Henry  Tutwiler,  with  the  prep- 
aration of  a  smaller  "Grammar  School  Atlas  of  Classical  Geog- 
raphy." Long's  last  work  during  the  period  with  which  we  are 
now  concerned  immediately  preceding  our  Civil  War,  and 
the  last  school  text  ever  prepared  by  his  hand,  was  his  "Sallust's 
Catiline  and  Jugurtha,"  1860,  8vo.,  of  which  a  second  edition 
was  called  for  in  1884. 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG  47 


III.  THE  RETURN  TO  ENGLAND:    PERIOD  AFTER  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

The  period  of  the  Civil  War  in  America,  to  which  we  have 
now  come  in  our  perusal  of  the  lifelong  correspondence  between 
George  Long  and  Henry  Tutwiler,  marks  a  lengthy  interruption 
in  the  intercourse  between  our  great  English  scholar  and  his 
distinguished  American  pupil.  We  have  been  able  in  these 
fascinating  letters  to  follow  Long  in  the  fresh  morning  of  his 
youthful  prime  during  that  heroic  time  of  contact  with  Gilmer 
and  Jefferson,  Madison  and  Monroe,  founders  and  first  pro- 
fessors, first  students  and  first  patrons,  of  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia. We  have  seen  him  back  home  again  in  England  in  the 
full  noontide  of  his  career  reaping  the  fruits  of  fame  and  honor 
which  his  eager  and  tireless  heart  had  earned.  We  are  now 
to  converse  with  him  through  the  closing  evening  of  his  life 
during  the  decade  and  a  half  following  our  Civil  War  in  Amer- 
ica and  ending  with  that  last  tragic  moment,  tragic  but  sub- 
lime, when  the  adamantine  strength  and  loyalty  of  his  spirit 
triumphed  even  in  death  and  nerved  his  dying  hand  to  write 
a  last  farewell  to  the  friend  of  his  lifetime. 

Profoundly  interesting  historically  as  are  the  letters  of  the 
ante-bellum  period,  these  later  and  more  abundant  documents, 
to  which  we  now  come  and  which  conclude  the  story  of  our 
great  scholar's  life  in  its  relation  to  things  American,  grip  our 
southern  and  confederate  hearts  with  a  deeper  appeal.  They 
reveal  George  Long  as  passionately  loyal  to  the  South  and  the 
Confederacy,  and  as  remaining  to  his  last  breath  an  "unrecon- 
structed rebel."  In  August  of  1869  he  writes  to  Tutwiler  from 
Brighton,  Sussex,  and  explains  his  dedication  of  his  translation 
of  Marcus  Aurelius  to  General  Lee:  "I  wish  the  people  of  the 
South  to  see  that  there  is  at  least  one  Englishman  who,  like 
Cato  of  old,  prefers  the  side  of  the  vanquished  to  that  of  the 
insolent  conqueror."  He  was  persistent  in  his  conviction  that 
"England  made  a  great  mistake  in  not  aiding  the  French  in  sup- 
porting the  South,"  and  was  so  little  resigned  to  the  result  of 
the  struggle  as  to  allow  even  the  faint  hope  to  glimmer  between 


48  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  I/)NG 

the  lines  that  "the  Secession  may  yet  be  accomplished,  if  ihe 
southern  people  wish  it,  but  it  will  not  be  in  my  time."  We  are 
not  surprised,  therefore,  to  find  George  Long  following  the 
course  of  "reconstruction"  in  the  South  with  a  passionate  in- 
terest and  sympathy,  which  his  very  distance  from  the  scene 
itself  all  but  intensified — 

Ut   adsidens   implumibus   pullis   avis 

Serpentium  adlapsus  timet 
Magis  relictis,  non  ut  adsit  auxili 

Latura  plus  praesentibus. 

Ever  and  anon  the  forked  lightning  of  his  scorn  discharges  its 
withering  fire  against  the  little  faction  responsible  for  the  pol- 
icies and  practices  of  reconstruction:  "I  do  not  doubt,"  he 
writes  ( in  August  of  1868,  "that  there  are  still  many  good  men 
in  the  North,  but  the  party  in  power  is  the  most  cruel,  wicked 
set  of  men  that  I  have  ever  read  of.  I  have  no  words  sufficient 
to  express  my  abhorrence  of  their  foul,  cowardly,  and  malig- 
nant tyranny." 

This  ardent  allegiance  to  the  cause  of  the  Confederacy  found 
its  reflection  and  fruition  in  an  exalted  reverence  for  General 
Lee,  whom  he  ranked  with  Caesar  in  genius  and  with  Marcus 
Aurelius  in  virtue — the  two  heroes  of  his  scientific  study.  "If 
I  were  not  detained  here  by  circumstances,"  he  writes  from 
England  in  his  three-score  and  tenth  year,  "I  would  cross  the 
Atlantic  to  see  the  first  and  noblest  man  of  our  days."  The 
terrible  struggle,  too,  had  the  effect  of  localizing  upon  the  south- 
ern states  his  otherwise  more  general  interest  in  America.  Be- 
fore the  war,  in  1853,  he  had  made  up  his  mind  that  he  wanted 
to  return  to  the  United  States  and  settle  in  one  or  another  choice 
region  of  Pennsylvania.  But  now  all  that  is  changed.  We  hear 
no  more  of  "Pennsylvania,  and  that  part  which  extends  from 
Gettysburg  along  the  hills,  or  the  part  further  west  from  Hagers- 
town  and  Maryland  northwards,"  but  now  only  of  the  South. 
"Bad  as  your  state  of  affairs  is,"  he  writes  from  Brighton  in 
1870,  "I  would  gladly  change  England  for  the  Southern  States, 
if  it  could  be  done  by  a  wish."  Eight  years  later,  in  March  of 
1878  and  the  year  before  his  death,  he  writes  to  Tutwiler:  "It 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG  49 

is  strange  how  fresh  the  Southern  States  are  in  my  memory. 
I  shall  die  thinking  of  them."     And  the  last  of  these  precious 
letters  shows  the  great  old  heart  fulfilling  its  own  prophecy — 
Et  dulcis  moriens   reminiscitur  Argos. 

GEORGE  LONG  TO  HENRY  TUTWILER. 

22  Buckingham  Road,  Sussex. 

27  Aug.,  1868. 
My   dear    Sir: 

Yesterday  I  received  your  letter  of  Aug.  4,  today  a  newspaper,  and 
a  few  days  ago  a  newspaper.  The  newspapers  cost  me  nothing,  and 
I  shall  be  glad  to  receive  one  occasionally.  I  can  also  occasionally 
send  you  the  London  Times.  All  the  postage  that  I  can  pay  here 
on  the  Times  is  one  penny  or  two  cents,  and  it  is  very  likely  that 
you  will  have  nothing  to  pay:  but  you  can  let  me  know.  I  received 
a  letter  from  you  dated  June  5,  1867,  which  I  have  always  intended 
to  answer,  and  only  answer  now.  I  have  no  excuse,  except  that  I 
have  had  a  good  deal  of  pain  for  more  than  a  year,  which  has  made 
me  slow  in  doing  anything  that  was  not  absolutely  necessary.  Some 
say  it  is  gout,  but  there  are  no  external  symptoms.  I  am  somewhat 
better  now,  and  I  hope  to  get  rid  of  this  pain  by  constant  rubbing. 

Key  is  working  at  his  Latin  Dictionary  with  the  assistance  of  a 
German.  I  do  not  know  when  it  will  be  published.  The  French 
Diet,  by  Gasc  has  been  published  and  sells  for  four  s.  It  is  an  ex- 
cellent book.  An  American  firm  has  made  arrangements  with  the 
author  for  a  set  of  the  stereotype  plates.  I  am  printing  the  third 
vol.  of  my  history,  but  it  will  not  be  ready  before  December  or  Jan- 
uary next.  It  is  a  very  laborious  work.  I  am  also  busy  with  re- 
vising and  conducting  through  the  press  Macleane's  Horace,  which 
is  part  of  the  Bibliotheca  Classica  that  I  superintend.  Macleane  has 
been  dead  some  time,  and  I  did  not  like  to  trust  the  revison  of  my 
friend's  work  to  the  hands  of  a  stranger.  Though  I  have  been  guilty 
of  most  unusual  delay  in  answering  your  letter,  you  must  not  con- 
clude that  I  never  think  of  you.  I  think  of  you  continually  when- 
ever I  read  any  American  news,  and  I  lament  most  sincerely  the 
unhappy  condition  to  which  a  wicked  faction  has  reduced  your  coun- 
try. It  would  have  been  difficult  enough  to  restore  prosperity  to  the 
South  after  the  War  and  the  sudden  transition  from  slavery  to  free- 
dom, if  the  men  who  had  conquered  by  means  of  the  slave,  had 
wisely  cooperated  with  his  former  master  and  done  their  best  to 
heal  the  grievous  wounds  of  your  country.  But  those  men  have 
worked  only  to  do  mischief.  I  do  not  doubt  that  there  are  still 
many  good  men  in  the  North,  but  the  party  in  power  is  the  most 
cruel,  wicked  set  of  men  that  I  have  ever  read  of.  I  have  no  words 
sufficient  to  express  my  abhorence  of  their  foul,  cowardly  and  ma- 


50  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 

lignant  tyranny.  There  are  many  persons  in  England  who  think  as 
I  do,  but  you  must  remember  that  people  are  not  well  informed  on 
American  affairs,  and  that  those  who  were  in  favor  of  the  South 
during  the  war  are  generally  the  men  of  higher  rank,  who  are  quiet 
and  say  little.  Most  of  our  newspapers  are  on  what  is  called  the 
liberal  side,  and  our  most  active  men  are  on  that  side  too.  They  are 
ready  to  make  great  changes  here,  and  I  doubt  if  all  these  changes 
will  be  beneficial.  I  am  not  averse  to  any  change  that  is  a  clear 
improvement;  but  hasty  changes  in  our  kind  of  society  are  danger- 
ous. Hughes  is  a  lawyer  of  small  sense  who  is  trying  to  talk  him- 
self into  importance.  Bright  is  well  known  to  you.  Goldwin  Smith 
proposes  a  complete  change  in  our  institutions.  Now  I  dislike  many 
things  here  as  much  as  he  does,  but  I  think  I  see  that  you  cannot 
make  these  changes  without  doing  great  mischief.  In  theory  I  pre- 
fer a  republic  to  a  state  with  a  king  at  the  head,  and  I  care  not  for 
rank  and  title.  But  if  ever  England  is  freed  from  these  things,  I 
am  not  sure  that  she  will  be  the  better  for  it.  :Mill  is  very  unprac- 
tical. He  has  a  good  retiring  pension  as  an  old  servant  of  the  old 
East  India  company,  and  he  can  afford  to  give  his  time  to  public 
matters.  The  source  of  his  pension  is  the  taxes  drawn  from  India; 
and  though  we  are  better  governors  than  the  native  princes  were, 
we  tax  hard;  we  tax  land,  we  tax  the  poor  Hindoo's  salt.  I  would 
rather  earn  my  living  than  draw  it  from  the  labour  of  a  man  who 
works  in  a  cotton  shirt.  You  cannot  tell  what  Englishmen  think  of 
America  from  what  an  American  publisher  may  collect  from  Eng- 
lish reviews  and  papers;  though  you  may  learn  what  a  good  many 
think,  if  the  thoughts  of  men  about  America  are  worth  knowing, 
when  the  men  themselves  know  very  little  of  your  affairs. 

It  is  a  common  fashion  now  to  bepraise  the  Yankee  on  all  occa- 
sions, to  flatter  him  and  fawn  on  him,  as  if  we  were  afraid  of  him. 
Contemptible  as  the  Yankee  politician  is  in  my  eyes,  he  is  not  so 
contemptible  as  those  who  crouch  before  him.  I  am  by  no  means 
pleased  with  my  own  country,  and  if  I  were  younger,  I  would  still 
leave  it.  But  I  am  too  old,  and  my  means  are  much  reduced,  owing 
to  the  folly  of  a  son  who  was  in  Chicago  and  is  now  in  Milwaukee. 
It  was  my  intention  to  leave  'England  eight  or  nine  years  ago,  and 
if  he  had  followed  my  orders  when  I  sent  him  to  America,  I  should 
have  been  there  now.  My  youngest  son,  my  great  hope,  died  eight 
years  ago.  I  have  one  a  lawyer  in  London  who  is  forty  years  old, 
the  child  who  was  born  in  the  University  of  Virginia.  My  second 
son  at  present  living  in  Dublin  is  in  the  Commissariat  service.  He 
has  lately  returned  from  China  and  Japan.  Your  address  to  the 
freedmen  was  just  what  I  should  have  expected  from  you.  I  shall 
keep  it  carefully.  But  how  many  of  them  could  read  it?  Some 
certainly  would  hardly  understand  it.  I  think  the  future  condition 
of  the  black  man  will  be  unhappy.  A  few  among  them  have  energy 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG  51 

and  sense;  but  they  are  few.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  they  will 
hardly  keep  up  their  numbers.  If  the  hard  working  peasants  of 
France  should  ever  emigrate  to  the  south,  they  would  work  the 
negro  out  of  the  country  soon.  In  the  south  of  France  they  work 
under  a  sun  as  hot  as  yours  from  early  dawn  till  evening,  and  only 
earn  a  bare  subsistence,  for  they  are  impoverished  by  an  expensive 
government.  In  your  southern  states  they  would  be  rich  with  half 
the  labour.  But  the  French  peasant  is  poor  and  has  little  enter- 
prise. Why  does  not  the  German  come  down  into  the  South  in 
greater  numbers?  Perhaps  he  will  find  his  way  some  day,  and  eat 
up  the  black  man.  If  the  black  shall  lose  his  best  friends  by  emi- 
gration, his  lot  will  be  bad  indeed.  I  am  not  at  all  surprised  to 
hear  that  you  are  looking  for  a  new  home,  and  as  you  have  the 
best  means  of  information  and  a  family  to  take  with  you,  there  is 
every  reasonable  chance  that  you  will  do  well  for  them,  and  I  hope 
for  yourself  too.  Still  it  is  a  hardship  to  be  driven  away  from  a 
country  which  has  many  natural  advantages,  for  I  consider  a  large 
part  of  the  Atlantic  Southern  states  as  one  of  the  best  parts  of  our 
globe. 

I  am  not  sure  that  I  know  of  anything  just  at  present  that  would 
be  useful  to  you  in  education.  There  is  nothing  that  I  know  of 
like  the  Quarterly  Journal  of  Education.  An  immense  number  of 
books  is  published,  but  I  doubt  if  there  is  much  good  in  them.  I 
see  very  few.  If  you  like,  I  can  send  you  a  copy  of  the  Horace 
that  I  am  working  at.  I  have  used  some  of  the  latest  German  books, 
and  I  hope  I  have  done  something. 

Your  ever  faithful  friend, 

GEORGE  LONG. 

22  Buckingham  Road,  Brighton,  Sussex. 

August  17,  1867. 
My  dear   Friend: 

I  have  received  four  newspapers  from  you  and  I  have  sent  sev- 
eral. One  will  be  sent  at  the  same  time  with  this  letter.  How  fast 
time  goes.  I  see  that  your  letter  is  dated  May  15.  I  have  been 
very  busy  this  spring,  and  I  have  now  released  myself  from  some 
heavy  work.  The  3rd  volume  of  my  history  is  printed,  but  not 
published.  I  suppose  that  it  is  kept  back  till  the  season  of  October. 

I  collect  that  there  is  some  chance  of  things  mending  in  Virginia, 
since  Walker  is  elected.  The  University  seems  to  be  flourishing. 
I  see  that  General  Lee  is  still  living  and  has  the  influence  which  he 
so  well  deserves.  I  suppose  Grant  to  be  as  honest  as  he  can  be 
under  the  circumstances,  and  willing  to  do  all  the  good  that  he  can. 

You  told  me  some  time  ago  of  the  American  publisher  dedicating 
my  translation  of  Antoninus  to  Emerson.  I  have  now  an  oppor- 
tunity of  returning  the  favour.  Bell  has  reprinted  the  translation 


52  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 

in  Bohn's  series,  but  it  is  not  published.  I  suppose  that  he  is  wait- 
ing for  the  Autumn  season.  The  book  is  made  much  cheaper,  per- 
haps too  cheap  to  be  reprinted  in  America,  though  a  friend  well  ac- 
quainted with  American  affairs  tells  me  that  printer's  wages  have 
been  lowered.  I  have  added  a  small  page  which  contains  an  ad- 
monition to  the  Am.  publisher  that  neither  he  nor  his  countrymen 
will  soon  forget.  An  American  bookseller  in  London,  when  he 
saw  the  admonition,  declared  that  he  would  not  take  any  copies, 
if  it  remained.  I  would  not  consent  to  strike  it  out,  and  Bell  has 
settled  the  matter  by  printing  it  on  a  separate  page,  which  the  in- 
dignant Yankee  may  tear  out,  if  he  likes,  to  please  his  customers. 
Others  can  keep  it.  The  substance  is  that  it  is  not  decent  to  have 
done  what  the  Yankee  publisher  did,  and  that  if  I  dedicated  this 
little  book  to  any  man,  I  should  dedicate  it  to  General  Lee.  Could 
I  send  a  copy  to  Dr.  Bledsoe?  Is  he  at  Baltimore,  or  where?  I 
wish  you  or  he  would  say  a  word  in  the  So.  Quarterly  Review  about 
my  translation,  and  introduction,  and  publish  to  all  the  southern 
states  my  counterblast  against  the  Yankee  pirate.  I  wish  the  peo- 
ple of  the  South  to  see  that  there  is  at  least  one  Englishman,  who 
like  Cato  of  old,  prefers  the  side  of  the  vanquished  to  that  of  the 
insolent  conqueror. 

Is  there  not  some  hope  for  the  South  in  the  immigration  of  men 
with  capital?  The  South  is  naturally  so  rich  that  it  may  in  time  be 
too  strong  to  be  trampled  on.  I  still  think  that  the  Secession  may 
be  accomplished,  if  the  southern  people  wish  it,  but  it  will  not  be  in 
my  time.  There  is  no  doubt  that  England  made  a  great  mistake  in 
not  aiding  the  French  in  supporting  the  South.  I  thought  so  at  the 
time  and  I  think  so  still.  Mr.  Sumner's  big  bill  will  never  be  paid. 
The  Yankees  may  take  Canada  if  they  choose,  but  they  won't  get 
their  demand  paid.  We  are  still  too  strong  to  be  bullied,  and  no 
government  could  stand,  which  will  make  disgraceful  terms  with 
any  country. 

The  book  called  "France  and  its  Revolutions"  is  by  me.  It  was  pub- 
lished by  C.  Knight,  and  as  he  said,  did  not  sell;  but  he  mismanaged 
it,  as  he  did  many  other  things.  The  work  seems  almost  unknown 
in  England.  It  was  abused  a  little,  but  not  enough  to  bring  it  into 
notice.  If  Macaulay  had  written  it,  I  will  venture  to  say  it  would 
have  sold  largely.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  book  has  great  faults. 
I  know  no  testimony  in  its  favor  except  that  of  the  best  lawyer  of 
his  day,  who  told  me  that  it  was  the  best  account  that  he  had  read 
of  the  French  revolutions.  It  was  begun  on  a  large  scale,  and  when 
I  had  written  about  one  half,  the  publisher  compelled  me  to  write 
the  remainder  on  about  half  the  scale,  under  the  pretence,  true  or 
false  I  know  not,  that  he  was  losing  money  by  it.  There  is  a  Sup- 
plement to  the  P.  C.;  and  a  new  edition  of  the  whole  work  'conducted 
by  Charles  Knight.'  He  turned  me  off  as  editor  and  did,  or  rather 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG  53 

pretended  to  do,  the  work  himself.  The  leading  articles  in  the  Jour- 
nal of  Education  were  never  published.  At  least  I  never  heard  of 
the  publication.  If  you  wish  to  have  a  copy  of  "France  and  its  Revo- 
lutions," you  might  ask  some  American  publisher,  whether  his  agent 
in  London  could  not  find  a  second  hand  copy.  I  never  see  one.  I 
cannot  conjecture  what  Knight  did  with  the  book.  I  can  only  guess 
that  he  sold  it  for  waste  paper. 

It  is  not  easy  for  a  book  to  be  established  here,  unless  under  some 
great  name.  Good  books  struggle  and  die.  Authors  work  hard  to 
get  a  review  in  the  Times,  and  some  people  think  that  if  money  is 
not  paid  to  the  Times,  which  is  not  probable,  money  is  paid  to  those 
who  write  in  the  Times.  My  R.  history  has  ceased  to  sell,  which  I 
do  not  much  wonder  at,  as  there  are  only  two  vols.  of  an  unfinished 
work.  We  shall  soon  see  if  the  third  vol.  will  revive  the  sale.  I  do 
not  expect  much  myself.  Our  people  are  exceedingly  deficient  in 
independent  judgement,  and  anything  from  Germany  is  preferred  to 
home  work.  Mommsen's  R.  History,  which  I  dislike  exceedingly, 
has  been  extolled  in  the  most  absurd  way,  and  mine  has  been  dis- 
paraged. But  I  see  some  symptoms  that  a  few  are  beginning  to  find 
that  Mommsen  is  talk  without  facts,  and  that  his  political  knowledge 
is  more  pretentious  than  real. 

It  is  the  fashion  here  to  require  boys  to  put  accents  on  their  Greek 
exercises:  but  neither  the  boys  nor  the  teachers  know  what  they 
mean.  The  modern  Greeks  pronounce  according  to  the  accents:  thus 
they  pronounce  avdQCOJtog,  anthropos,  which  we  know  to  be  wrong. 
They  also  confound  several  diphthongs  and  vowels,  about  half  a  dozen, 
and  pronounce  them  all  alike,  which  is  certainly  wrong  also.  It  is 
the  fashion  in  our  College  and  has  been  mine  for  many  years  to  pro- 
nounce the  long  and  short  vowels  in  Latin  as  exactly  as  we  can: 
thus  we  pronounce  'dicere'  di|c  e|re,  and  'dicare,'  die  are.  So  far  I 
think  we  ought  to  go.  If  at  the  Univ.  of  Va.  they  lay  great  stress 
on  pronunciation,  I  cannot  value  what  they  are  attempting,  if  they 
go  further  than  I  have  mentioned.  If  they  lay  great  stress  on  Greek 
accentuation,  which  I  will  venture  to  say  they  don't  understand,  I 
hope  they  do  not  neglect  the  language  itself. 

I  received  your  photograph  which  is  among  my  treasures.  It  is 
still  a  good  likeness  of  the  youthful  face  which  I  remember. 

I  am  very  glad  to  hear  that  your  son  in  law  is  pleased  with  Cali- 
fornia. If  I  were  twenty  years  younger,  I  would  not  stay  here.  Our 
college  is  not  doing  well.  The  fault,  I  think,  is  chiefly  in  the  clerical 
head.  He  has  good  abilities,  but  he  wants  sense  and  judgement.  I 
don't  expect  to  stay  very  long,  and  I  do  not  know  where  I  shall  seek 
a  refuge.  I  am  too  old  to  leave  my  country  again.  I  hope  your  af- 
fairs are  prosperous. 

Yours  ever  most  truly, 

GEORGE  LONG. 


54  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 

22  Buckingham  Road, 

Brighton,   Sussex. 
Sept.  17,  1869. 
My  dear  Friend: 

After  fine  weather  during  harvest  we  have  the  storms  and  rains 
which  often  come  at  this  season,  and  the  weather  is  now  very  gloomy. 

I  wrote  to  you  some  weeks  ago,  and  sent  a  Times.  My  second  edi- 
tion of  M.  Antoninus  has  appeared.  I  asked  Mr.  Bell  the  publisher 
to  send  a  copy  to  you,  one  to  the  editor  of  the  S.  Quarterly  Review, 
Baltimore,  one  to  General  Lee,  Lexington  College,  Virginia,  and  one 
to  President  Grant.  He  informs  me  that  he  has  sent  all  the  copies 
by  post.  I  hope  you  will  let  me  know  if  you  receive  yours.  Is  there 
any  way  of  discovering  whether  General  Lee  receives  his  copy? 

I  hope  you  may  say  something  of  this  book  in  an  American  paper. 
Opposite  to  the  title  page  is  printed  my  Edictum  against  the  man 
who  dedicated  the  translation  without  my  consent.  It  contains  some- 
thing which  I  hope  the  Southern  people  will  not  be  sorry  to  see 
from  an  Englishman  and  a  former  teacher  in  Virginia.  I  should  be 
much  pleased  if  Dr.  Bledsoe  would  make  the  Edictum  known  as  far 
as  his  Journal  goes. 

Mr.  Bell  informs  me  that  he  has  also  sent  you  a  Horace  by  post. 
I  told  him  that  you  would  pay  for  it  through  Appletons.  The  other 
book  is  a  gift. 

My  third  vol.  of  the  Roman  hist,  is  ready,  but  it  has  been  kept 
back  during  the  dull  season.  I  suppose  it  will  be  published  next 
month.  I  am  busy  with  the  fourth  and  last.  I  have  now  good  hopes 
that  I  shall  finish  the  work,  if  I  can  go  on  steadily  to  the  end  of  next 
year,  when  I  shall  be  past  seventy.  It  may  seem  strange  that  at 
this  age  I  should  be  uncertain  how  I  may  spend  the  few  years  which 
according  to  human  probability  remain.  Our  college,  perhaps  I  told 
you,  has  declined,  partly  owing  perhaps  to  the  general  derangement 
caused  by  the  depreciation  of  the  value  of  railways,  unfortunate  joint 
stock  undertakings  and  the  great  frauds  practiced  by  directors  of  all 
kinds.  Our  character  for  honesty  is  nearly  gone,  and  it  will  be  hard 
to  retrieve  it.  Whatever  may  be  the  cause,  the  prospects  of  our 
college  are  uncertain,  and  I  have  lost  two  thirds  of  my  salary.  Ow- 
ing to  one  of  my  sons,  who  is  now  somewhere  about  Chicago,  I 
have  lost  what  would  have  been  an  ample  provision  for  my  old  age; 
and  my  means  are  now  very  small. 

If  I  were  ten  years  younger,  I  might  be  tempted  to  cross  the  At- 
lantic and  seek  a  home  somewhere  in  America,  but  it  is  too  late. 
England  after  all  is  perhaps  the  cheapest  country  in  the  world,  if  a 
man  will  retire  from  the  towns.  The  climate  for  a  large  part  of  the 
year  is  not  pleasant,  but  great  cold  is  not  common.  This  town  of 
Brighton  is  a  very  dry  place.  It  stands  on  a  rock  of  chalk  into  which 
all  the  rain  that  is  not  carried  off  by  drains  sinks  immediately  and 


OF  GEORGE  I/)NG  55 

descends  to  a  great  depth.  By  making  a  couple  of  deep  wells  in  the 
valleys  near  the  town  we  get  a  supply  of  excellent  water,  enough  for 
a  town  twice  as  large,  and  Brighton  I  suppose  has  near  one  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants.  The  water  for  my  house,  a  very  abundant 
supply,  costs  me  exactly  one  half  penny  a  day;  and  yet  shares  in  the 
Water  Company  produce  a  dividend  of  seven  per  cent  free  of  income 
tax.  For  want  of  other  news  I  thought  you  might  be  pleased  to  learn 
a  little  of  our  town  economy.  We  have  also  a  gas  company  which 
furnishes  good  gas  cheap,  and  yet  pays  seven  per  cent  to  the  pro- 
prietors. With  these  advantages  however  living  is  dear,  and  the  town 
is  perhaps  the  most  expensive  place  in  Great  Britain. 

I  send  a  newspaper  which  I  intended  to  send  sooner,  but  it  has 
been  buried  under  a  heap  of  papers. 

The  above  letter  lacked  the  usual  concluding  greeting  and 
signature — no  doubt  because  of  the  crowded  condition  of  the 
page. 

22  Buckingham  Road,  Brighton. 

Aug.   2,   1870. 
My  dear  friend: 

I  was  just  going  to  write  to  you  when  your  letter  came  about  ten 
days  ago  when  I  was  in  Yorkshire.  Your  long  silence  had  led  me  to 
conclude  that  you  were  not  well.  I  hope  you  are  now  quite  restored, 
but  remember  that  we  cannot  work  as  much  as  we  did  some  years 
back.  I  had  a  dreadful  cold  this  spring.  It  only  laid  me  up  two  days, 
but  it  left  me  with  a  cough,  of  which  I  shall  always  feel  the  effects. 

I  received  General  Lee's  letter  and  also  from  Dr.  Bledsoe  two  num- 
bers of  the  Southern  Review,  January  and  April.  I  have  read  some 
articles  with  pleasure  and  I  have  lent  the  numbers  to  several  friends 
who  take  an  interest  in  the  Southern  states,  particularly  the  Fitzhughs, 
who  are  related  to  the  Fitzhughs  of  Va.  I  shall  keep  General  Lee's 
letter  and  leave  it  to  somebody,  who  will  cherish  the  remembrance  of 
a  great  soldier  and  a  good  man.  If  I  were  not  detained  here  by  cir- 
cumstances I  would  cross  the  Atlantic  to  see  the  first  and  noblest  man 
of  our  days.  I  lately  saw  here  Mr.  Rives,  whom  you  no  doubt  know, 
the  son  of  Mr.  Rives  of  Va.  He  is  a  good  specimen  of  a  Virginia 
gentleman.  The  old  dominion  has  good  stuff  in  it  still,  and  I  hope 
the  young  men  will  show  themselves  genuine  descendants  of  the 
worthies  who  have  left  great  names  behind  them.  I  did  not  answer 
General  Lee's  letter,  because  I  thought  that  he  is  probably  troubled 
with  many  letters.  If  ever  you  should  have  occasion  to  write  to  him, 
I  beg  you  will  present  to  him  my  most  respectful  regards,  and  a  hope 
that  he  will  leave  some  Commentarii  behind  him  to  be  placed  on 
the  same  shelf  with  Caesar.  I  am  afraid  he  is  too  modest  to  do  this. 

I  have  informed  Mr.  Bell  of  what  you  say  about  the  Antoninus  and 


56  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 

I  have  given  him  your  address.  I  think  that  he  might  push  the  sale  of 
other  books  that  he  has,  if  he  is  inclined  to  make  a  venture.  I  sup- 
pose some  honest  bookseller  might  be  found,  who  would  pay  him.  I 
have  a  small  interest  in  my  book,  but  I  am  not  moved  by  that  con- 
sideration. The  emperor's  thoughts  would  tend  to  form  the  character 
of  your  young  men.  If  there  is  any  hope  for  your  country,  it  is  in 
those  who  are  now  growing  into  manhood. 

My  third  volume  of  the  history  has  been  published  nearly  a  year, 
and  it  has  been  better  received  than  the  first  two  volumes,  but  the 
sale  is  still  small.  I  am  now  busy  with  Caesar's  campaigns.  I  have 
seen  most  of  the  places  where  he  fought,  and  I  am  using  the  second 
vol.  of  Napoleon's  history  of  Caesar,  which  is  a  useful  book,  and  is 
accompanied  by  an  excellent  Atlas  of  about  32  maps,  which  you  can 
buy  separately  for  the  small  sum  of  five  shillings.  If  you  get  them, 
order  the  French  edition  of  the  Atlas,  not  the  English. 

The  copyright  of  the  Journal  of  Education  belongs,  I  think,  to  Mr. 
Knight.  He  is  now  in  Brighton,  an  old  man,  near  eighty,  nearly  blind, 
and  unable  to  walk.  I  shall  see  him  soon.  No  collection  of  articles 
from  the  Journal  has  been  made,  nor  do  I  think  that  it  would  sell  here. 
The  work  is  forgotten,  and  the  editor  too.  We  are  forming  something 
like  a  plan  of  national  education,  and  men  who  have  done  nothing  are 
provided  with  good  places.  Some  time  ago  I  asked  Lord  Russell  to 
give  me  a  place  for  which  my  friends  thought  me  better  qualified  than 
most  people,  but  the  man  did  not  even  answer  my  letter.  This  is  the 
worst  country  in  the  world  for  a  literary  man,  who  will  not  eat  dirt, 
and  bad  as  your  state  of  affairs  is,  I  would  gladly  change  England  for 
the  southern  states,  if  it  could  be  done  by  a  wish.  I  have  now  served 
Brighton  College  21  years,  and  as  our  numbers  and  income  have  de- 
creased, the  governors  have  deprived  me  of  two  fifths  of  my  salary 
without  taking  any  thing  from  the  rest,  except  a  little  from  the  princi- 
pal, who  has  a  house  full  of  profitable  boarders.  I  only  stay  because 
it  is  convenient,  but  I  shall  leave  next  summer,  if  I  can,  and  retire 
to  live  on  a  very  small  income.  There  is  not  a  man  in  the  place,  ex- 
cept myself,  who  has  any  University  distinction,  or  has  done  anything 
at  all.  But  they  are  clergymen,  a  race  who  with  us  look  more  after 
gain  than  any  other  class  of  men.  Public  opinion  is  by  no  means  on 
their  side,  and  if  I  cannot  resist  the  priests,  I  have  at  least  the  re- 
spect of  the  community,  and  that  is  more  than  they  can  command. 

I  was  writing  a  note  a  few  weeks  ago  against  some  remarks  of  the 
Emperor  Napoleon  on  one  of  Caesar's  battles,  in  which  note  I  said 
that  such  remarks  would  not  have  been  expected  from  a  man  who 
was  supposed  to  know  something  of  the  art  of  war.  At  that  very 
time  he  declared  war  against  Prussia,  and  you  now  know,  what  has  be- 
fallen him.  He  who  gave  notice  that  he  was  going  to  enter  Germany  is 
driven  back  on  Paris  discomfited  and  disgraced.  The  fact  is  that  he 
was  not  ready  for  a  campaign  and  the  Germans  were.  I  am  a  little 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG  57 

afraid  about  the  German  advance  on  Paris.  If  they  should  be  beaten 
which  is  not  probable,  I  don't  see  how  they  will  retreat.  I  always 
predicted  that  the  French  would  not  cross  the  Rhine.  If  they  had 
done  so,  it  is  certain  that  they  would  never  have  returned.  A  few 
years  ago  the  Prussians  brought  down  the  Austrians  on  their  knees 
and  France  is  now  reduced  to  extremities.  The  slaughter  is  dreadful. 
I  trust  that  the  emperor  Napoleon  is  now  near  his  end  and  that  peace 
may  come. 

Your  faithful  friend, 

GEORGE  LONG. 

GEORGE   BELL   TO    HENRY   TUTWILER. 

London,  York  Str.  Covent  Garden. 

Sept.  7,  1870. 
Dear  Sir: 

Mr.  Long  says  that  you  have  difficulty  in  getting  copies  of  his  An- 
toninus with  the  "note."  The  American  houses  will  not  circulate  it 
and  tear  it  out. 

We  have  no  dealings  with  any  booksellers  in  the  Southern  States, 
but  should  be  glad  to  open  accounts  with  any  substantial  people  with 
whom  we  could  safely  do  business. 

If  you  can  recommend  any  and  suggest  to  them  to  write  to  us  for 
any  books  they  want  we  shall  be  glad  to  open  an  account  with  them. 

Or  if  you  think  25  or  50  copies  of  Antoninus  could  be  disposed  of 
with  your  help  we  should  be  willing  to  send  you  copies  at  the  actual 
(*)  price  2/6  each  (selling  at  3/6). 

If  you  could  suggest  any  mode  of  getting  a  circulation  for  our 
books  in  the  South,  or  put  us  in  communication  with  the  bookselling 
houses,  or  refer  us  to  any  source  where  we  can  find  out  the  names 
we  should  be  obliged,  and  we  could  send  them  copies  of  our  Cata- 
logues and  keep  them  informed  about  new  books. 

I  shall  send  with  this  a  copy  of  our  Catalogue  by  post. 
I    am,    dear    Sir, 

Yours  very  truly, 

GEORGE  BEI^. 

GEORGE  LONG  TO  HENRY  TUTWILER. 

Portfield,  Chichester. 

March  17,  1874. 
My  dear  Friend: 

On  the  third  of  this  month  I  received  your  welcome  letter,  which 
I  could  not  answer  immediately,  for  I  was  constantly  employed  about 
the  last  sheets  of  the  fifth  and  last  volume  of  my  history  which  ends 


*An  illegible  word  is  here  omitted. 


58  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 

with  Caesar's  death.  All  is  finished  and  printed  except  the  index  to 
the  five  vols.  The  Index  I  hope  will  be  printed  and  the  book  pub- 
lished before  the  end  of  next  June. 

You  may  conceive  what  a  relief  it  is  to  have  reached  the  end  of 
twelve  years  labour,  which  for  the  last  year  was  almost  too  great 
for  me;  for  I  have  had  other  things  also  on  hand.  I  was  73  years 
old  on  the  4th  of  last  November,  and  though  I  am  still  able  to  work 
as  usual,  I  feel  that  I  ought  to  be  at  rest  when  I  have  no  inclination 
to  work  hard. 

The  last  vol.  contains  the  history  of  the  Civil  War  and  the  events 
to  Caesar's  death.  I  have  taken  the  greatest  pains  with  this  vol.  and 
I  am  sufficiently  satisfied  with  the  result. 

Last  July  Mr.  Gladstone  gave  me  a  pension  of  £100  a  year  on  the 
Civil  list.  It  is  no  great  sum,  but  this  addition  to  my  small  income 
enables  me  to  live  more  comfortably.  It  came  to  me  without  asking 
for  it,  which  I  should  not  have  done,  and  contrary  to  my  expectation. 
Such  grants  have  been  made  to  persons  who  do  not  deserve  them, 
but  there  was  a  general  expression  of  satisfaction  at  the  grant  made 
to  me,  and  a  wish  by  many  persons  that  it  had  been  more. 

I  suppose  and  I  think  it  is  certain  that  Napoleon  had  neither  the 
time  nor  the  knowledge  necessary  for  writing  the  life  of  Caesar.  The 
first  vol.  is  very  bad,  and  the  English  translation  was  made  by  a  man 
who  knows  nothing  of  Roman  history  and  still  less  of  the  French 
language.  The  second  vol.,  which  contains  Caesar's  Gallic  campaigns, 
is  a  good  book,  and  I  give  to  Napoleon  the  credit  of  the  design  and 
ordering  the  necessary  inquiries  about  the  battle  fields  and  sieges. 
I  sent  him  a  copy  of  my  4th  vol.  after  he  came  to  England,  and  he 
wrote  to  me  a  polite  acknowledgement.  I  am  not  a  partisan  of  the 
Napoleons,  but  it  was  just  to  express  that  the  book  had  been  very 
useful  to  me. 

I  am  sorry  to  hear  that  the  Southern  States  are  in  such  a  condi- 
tion as  you  describe.  I  never  expected  any  thing  else  after  the 
emancipation  of  the  negroes,  and  I  see  no  possibility  of  the  mischief 
which  has  followed  this  wicked  and  foolish  act  being  cured.  It  is 
not  possible  that  a  body  of  men  so  ignorant  can  ever  become  useful 
citizens.  I  fear  that  the  fine  countries  of  the  South  will  never  re- 
cover from  this  fatal  measure. 

France  has  always  shown  great  powers  of  recovery.  They  have 
no  negroes,  and  the  French  farmer  is  the  most  industrious  and  sav- 
ing man  in  the  world.  But  the  burden  of  the  loss  from  the  war  is 
almost  more  than  France  can  bear,  and  she  is  still  disturbed  by  po- 
litical quarrels.  I  believe  that  her  power  is  gone,  and  that  the  weight 
of  taxation  will  keep  her  in  a  depressed  state.  At  present  she  is 
hard  pressed,  though  she  is  working  as  she  has  always  worked.  The 
French  are  sending  us  many  horses  for  which  they  receive  a  good 
price.  They  are  constantly  passing  my  windows.  They  are  not,  I 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE)  LONG  59 

am  told,  so  good  as  our  horses,  but  England  wants  more  horses  than 
she  can  produce. 

The  news  from  California  is  good.  There  is  nothing  there  to 
check  prosperity  except  the  occasional  floods  and  drought  which  I 
have  read  of.  If  irrigation  can  be  successfully  practised,  one  great 
obstacle  to  agriculture  will  be  removed,  and  your  venture  will  be 
profitable.  I  do  not  know  whether  we  shall  ever  be  able  to  do  all 
over  India  what  they  are  doing  in  California.  If  we  cannot,  India 
will  have  periodic  famines,  as  she  has  had  in  all  ages.  Bengal  at 
present  is  in  a  bad  state,  and  notwithstanding  all  the  efforts  of  the 
Indian  government,  many  of  the  natives  will  die.  The  number  who 
perished  in  Orissa  a  few  years  past  was  enormous  and  the  reckoning 
is  almost  incredible. 

I  don't  understand  the  Harvard  professor's  doctrine  of  accent.  I 
believe  that  the  pronunciation  of  all  languages  is  continually  chang- 
ing, and  that  the  modern  Greek  pronunciation  is  no  evidence  of 
the  antient  pronunciation.  In  antient  times  Greek  was  so  widely 
diffused  that  we  cannot  suppose  that  the  pronunciation  was  every- 
where the  same,  though  there  may  have  been  a  considerable  uni- 
formity in  the  pronunciation  of  educated  persons.  I  can  very  well 
understand  that  XOM.TI,  and  XG>H,TI  were  easily  distinguished  in  the  com- 
mon language  of  Athens,  whatever  marks,  called  accent,  we  choose 
to  place  on  these  words.  The  whole  question  seems  to  me  to  be 
an  idle  matter.  When  we  read  the  Iambic  lines  of  a  Greek  tragedian, 
how  can  we  doubt  about  the  necessity  of  observing  what  we  call 
quantity?  I  say  nothing  of  the  pronunciation  of  the  several  letters: 
that  is  a  different  thing. 

Dr.  Harrison  sent  me  last  year,  I  think,  a  copy  of  his  father's  book 
on  Greek  prepositions,  which  I  had  not  seen  before.  I  thanked  him 
for  the  book,  which  must  have  cost  our  friend  much  labour.  I  am 
very  glad  to  hear  that  Mrs.  Harrison  is  so  well  provided  for. 

I  wish  that  I  had  seen  your  daughter  when  she  was  in  England: 
it  would  have  given  me  great  pleasure.  Her  acquirements  will  be 
very  useful  both  to  you  and  herself.  If  you  wish  to  learn  a  modern 
language  well,  you  must  live  in  the  country  where  it  is  spoken.  No 
industry  or  ability  can  do  what  is  easily  accomplished  by  hearing 
daily  the  language  spoken  by  those  whose  tongue  it  is. 

There  is  a  great  activity  among  English  women  about  education, 
and  we  have  some  good  classical  scholars  among  them.  I  have  a 
friend  whose  daughter  is  at  a  female  college  in  Cambridge.  She  is 
a  good  mathematician,  and  though  she  cannot  be  a  competitor  for 
University  scholarships,  she  lately  was  examined  in  the  same  papers 
as  some  young  men  who  were  candidates  for  a  university  scholar- 
ship, and  the  examiner  reported  that  she  beat  them  all.  I  think 
that  the  women  have  been  badly  treated  in  the  matter  of  education, 
but  they  have  now  better  opportunities. 


60  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 

Your  children  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  George  the  parrot,  who 
is  now  twelve  years  old,  is  in  excellent  health,  and  in  beautiful 
feather.  He  speaks  so  well  that  if  you  did  not  see  him,  you  would 
take  it  for  a  human  voice.  He  varies  it  in  every  way,  and  when  he 
says  'Poor  papa,'  he  is  evidently  sympathizing  with  me  when  I  seem 
tired.  Parrots  are  most  perverse:  they  will  not  speak  before  stran- 
gers, nor  much  before  those  of  the  house.  When  I  am  in  another 
room,  then  he  talks.  Caesar  the  dog  has  wonderful  ability:  he  under- 
stands almost  all  that  is  said.  He  barks  terribly  sometimes  from 
pure  joy.  Nothing  delights  him  more  than  a  fight  with  a  dog  about 
his  own  size;  but  he  is  very  good  tempered.  I  have  only  seen  him 
once  in  a  fury.  A  dog  bigger  than  himself  fell  upon  him  and  I 
thought  that  my  hero  Caesar  was  going  to  receive  a  severe  threshing; 
but  Caesar  finally  bit  the  dog  so  hard  that  he  ran  off  into  a  house  fol- 
lowed by  General  Caesar,  whom  the  old  woman  of  the  house  could 
hardly  keep  out. 

Yours  ever  most  truly, 

GEORGE  LONG. 

Portfield,  Chichester. 

April  29,  1875. 
My  dear  Friend: 

Yesterday  was  lucky  for  me,  for  it  brought  your  welcome  letter  of 
the  10th  of  April.  Do  not  be  afraid  to  write  to  me.  I  now  have 
plenty  of  time. 

I  received,  and  I  thank  you  for  sending  it,  the  biographical  sketch 
of  our  friend  Gessner  Harrison.  I  do  not  remember  if  I  told  you 
that  Harrison's  son  sent  me  some  time  past  his  father's  book  on  the 
Greek  prepositions.  It  is  a  very  difficult  subject  on  which  the  Dr. 
has  bestowed  great  pains.  I  have  made  some  use  of  it,  and  I  shall 
now  be  able  to  use  it  more. 

I  have  received  an  invitation  to  attend  the  celebration  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Virginia;  but  I  hardly  need  to  tell  you  that  I  have  writ- 
ten to  say  that  I  cannot  come.  If  I  were  as  near  as  you  are,  I 
should  certainly  go.  I  should  be  delighted  to  see  the  old  country 
again. 

I  am  here  reminded  that  I  may  be  the  cause  of  your  having  a  let- 
ter from  a  man,  whose  name  at  present  I  cannot  remember,  who  is 
editing  or  has  edited  Edgar  Poe's  works.  He  tells  me  that  Poe  was 
at  the  University  of  Virginia  in  1826,  and  asks  me  if  I  remember 
Poe,  and  can  say  anything  about  him.  I  have  a  faint  recollection  of 
the  name,  but  no  real  remembrance  of  what  he  was  or  what  he  did 
at  the  University.  I  told  him  that  I  thought  that  you  may  have 
known  Poe,  and  I  gave  him  your  address.  Though  I  cannot  at 
present  think  of  the  man's  name,  I  know  that  he  is  a  person  of  good 
repute. 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG  61 

Perhaps  I  might  write  a  few  words  about  the  beginning  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Virginia  and  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Madison.  I  came  to  the  Uni- 
versity about  two  months  before  the  other  Professors  from  England.  I 
doubt  if  Key  could  contribute  anything,  or  would  do  so  at  present.  I 
never  go  to  London  and  very  seldom  hear  from  him.  I  am  told  that 
at  present  he  is  in  great  trouble.  His  youngest  son,  a  fine  man,  has 
returned  from  India  completely  and  hopelessly  ruined  in  health  and 
understanding;  and  another  man,  who  married  one  of  Key's  daugh- 
ters, is  confined  in  a  lunatic  asylum,  but  it  is  said  that  there  is  hope 
that  he  may  recover.  I  am  very  sorry,  that  Key  in  his  old  age,  for  he 
is  now  about  76,  is  so  unfortunate.  He  has  hitherto  been  prosperous, 
and  he  has  a  very  good  income. 

I  am  very  much  pleased  to  hear  of  your  daughter's  success  in  Ger- 
many. She  will  have  an  excellent  opportunity  of  perfecting  herself  in 
German  and  French,  and  she  will  without  doubt  be  able  to  turn  her 
acquirements  to  profit  in  her  own  country.  I  cannot  however  com- 
mend her  inviting  you  to  Germany.  I  think  that  you  would  find  the 
German  way  of  living  as  intolerable  as  I  should.  I  would  much 
rather  live  as  you  are  living  in  Alabama  than  hide  myself  in  any  town 
in  Germany;  and  as  to  living  in  the  country  in  Germany,  it  is  impossi- 
ble. It  is  very  easy  to  live  in  the  country  after  the  fashion  of  Amer- 
ica; and  in  England  it  is  very  pleasant  to  live  in  the  country  if  you 
have  means  sufficient.  I  read  the  article  in  Fraser's  Magazine  on 
Home  Life  in  Germany;  and  I  believe  that  it  represents  fairly  what 
that  life  is. 

I  am  afraid  that  your  unfortunate  country  will  suffer  a  long  time 
yet.  I  have  read  articles  which  speak  of  improvement  in  some  parts 
and  of  the  success  of  certain  branches  of  industry;  but  I  know  how 
difficult  it  is  to  state  facts  with  accuracy  and  to  tell  the  plain  truth. 
The  facts  which  you  mention  are  proof  enough  that  people  are  poor, 
for  nothing  except  poverty  would  prevent  your  people  from  giving 
their  children  a  good  education.  Your  loss  on  the  cotton  is  an  evi- 
dence that  honesty  is  not  a  virtue  which  prevails  at  Mobile.  The  be- 
haviour of  the  house  seems  to  me  a  specimen  of  impudent  knavery. 
We  can  match  such  transactions  here,  and  I  am  sorry  to  say  that 
English  integrity  is  not  what  it  was.  Still  you  may  do  pretty  well 
with  small  savings,  as  I  do,  if  you  keep  clear  of  Companies  called 
Limited.  The  amount  of  fraud  in  such  matters  is  incredible. 

The  last  volume  of  my  history  was  published,  I  think,  last  June.  I 
don't  see  the  price  marked  on  it,  but  it  cannot  be  more  than  16  shil- 
lings. 

Some  copies  have  been  sold  in  America.  I  was  very  much  ex- 
hausted when  the  work  was  done  and  if  the  labour  had  lasted  much 
longer.  I  doubt  if  I  could  have  finished  it.  If  I  could  go  over  it  again, 
I  could  improve  it,  but  I  have  done  the  best  I  could,  and  I  have 
spared  no  pains.  I  must  however  have  something  to  do,  and  I  am 


62  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  IX>NG 

now  translating  Epictetus  with  many  notes.     I  am  so  far  advanced 
that  I  have  reasonable  hopes  of  being  able  to  finish  this  difficult  work. 

There  has  been  a  great  stir  here  about  the  pronunciation  of  Latin; 
and  it  seems  that  the  disturbance  has  spread  to  America.  I  believe 
that  we  in  England  do  not  pronounce  Latin  as  the  Romans  did,  and 
I  do  not  believe  that  any  nation  does.  I  think  that  it  is  useful  to 
teach  boys  to  pronounce  all  the  syllables  according  to  the  quantity; 
but  I  agree  with  you  that  the  attempt  to  restore  the  Roman  Sounds 
of  the  vowels  and  consonants  is  useless. 

You  write  the  same  neat  hand  still,  from  which  I  infer  that  you  see 
well.  My  sight  is  as  good  as  it  ever  wras,  and  I  never  use  glasses.  I 
perceive  however  that  I  often  leave  out  words  when  I  write.  My 
thoughts  move  quicker  than  my  pen.  I  observe  that  most  people  of 
my  age  are  rather  deaf  of  one  ear  or  both.  My  hearing  is  very  sharp 
and  I  hope  it  will  not  fail.  It  is  very  unpleasant  to  speak  to  deaf 
men. 

Yours  always  truly, 

GEORGE  LONG. 

The  above  letter,  in  which  the  writer  indicates,  evidently  at 
Tutwiler's  request,  that  he  might  endeavor  to  prepare  some  state- 
ment of  his  recollections  of  the  early  days  of  the  University  of 
Virginia,  was  promptly  followed  by  the  charming  and  precious 
document  with  which,  because  of  its  content,  we  began  the  story 
of  this  correspondence. 

Portfield,  Chichester. 

March  3,  1878. 
My  dear  friend: 

It  is  long  since  you  heard  from  me.  I  have  received  all  that  you 
sent. 

Last  year  I  had  a  curious  kind  of  illness,  which  my  doctor  thought 
might  possibly  be  my  last,  but  I  did  not  think  so.  But  the  conse- 
quences have  been  that  I  have  lost  much  of  my  strength,  and  I  don't 
expect  to  recover  it. 

The  worst  effect  is  that  I  write  as  slowly  as  it  is  possible,  and  gen- 
erally with  very  great  pain.  My  right  hand  is  nearly  useless,  perhaps 
from  rheumatism.  I  leave  out  words  and  letters.  I  can  hardly  spell. 
I  walk  well,  but  not  much;  and  it  is  from  habit  only,  I  think,  that 
when  I  do  write,  I  resolve  to  write  legibly. 

I  am  now  in  the  4th  month  of  my  78th  year.  I  may  live  yet  some 
time,  but  I  shall  live  without  pleasure  and  in  pain;  which  is  not  an 
agreeable  prospect  to  a  man  who  feels  pain  acutely. 

Mrs.  Lawrence  can't  help  me.     She  is  too  blind  to  write  legibly. 

I  am  very  sorry  to  hear  the  bad  consequences  of  the  strikes,  and 
that  you  have  suffered  fiom  them.  You  have  had  much  cause  of  sor- 
row, and  I  am  very  sorry  for  it. 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG  63 

I  am  pleased  to  hear  that  you  have  had  any  pleasure  from  the  "Old 
Man's  Thoughts."  It  has  not  sold  well  here,  I  mean  in  the  second 
Edition.  Nothing  I  do  sells  here,  except  the  translation  of  M.  An- 
toninus and  Epictetus.  I  am  indebted  to  the  Americans  very  much 
for  the  sale  of  Epictetus.  You  judge  right  that  the  author  of  the 
"Old  Man's  Thoughts"  is  my  own  work  [myself?]. 

It  is  strange  how  fresh  the  Southern  States  are  in  my  memory.  I 
shall  die  thinking  of  them.  There  is  nothing  to  think  of  here.  We 
have  a  prospect  of  a  horrid  war,  for  which  we  are  not  prepared;  but 
England  has  courage  at  least,  mixed  with  many  faults. 

If  my  power  of  writing  should  be  restored,  which  I  do  not  expect, 
you  may  hear  from  me  again. 

Give  our  best  remembrances  to  Julia  and  Mr.  Wright,  and  to  all 
your  family. 

I  have  been  nearly  three  hours  in  writing  and  I  am  nearly  ex- 
hausted. 

Yours  ever  sincerely, 

GEORGE  LONG. 

Portfield,  Chichester. 

Dec.  2,  '78. 
My  dearest  friend: 

I  received  your  letter  this  morning,  and  with  the  greatest  pleasure. 
You  are  not  a  friend  who  will  be  forgotten,  even  if  a  man  seems  to 
forget  you.  I  must  explain  why  I  write  to  you  now. 

Since  the  3rd  of  March  I  have  had  a  very  troublesome  time.  Oc- 
cupied as  far  as  I  could  be  with  necessary  affairs,  and  only  with  the 
necessary,  and  not  knowing  whether  I  should  get  through  the  year,  I 
was  in  a  state  so  weak,  that  I  did  not  think  I  could  resist  the  hot 
weather  that  we  had  sometimes.  When  the  cool  weather  came  in 
October,  I  found  the  benefit  of  it,  and  I  can  say  that  in  the  last  four 
weeks  I  am  better.  I  can  walk  a  little  and  listen  to  reading,  which  I 
take  as  a  test  of  returning  power,  for  a  man  who  can  follow  a  narra- 
tive and  make  remarks  on  it  is  not  entirely  without  sense. 

I  cannot  tell  whether  my  recovery  will  go  on.  I  have  some  hopes 
of  it  in  spite  of  my  able  doctor  who  admits,  however,  that  I  have 
great  powers  of  recovery.  He  has  seen  me  in  a  state  when  he 
thought  me  dying,  and  I  cannot  wonder  that  he  looks  on  me  as  a 
man  condemned  to  death.  You  will  hear  again  if  I  continue  well. 
With  all  this  I  do  not  look  ill,  nor  am  I  thin;  it  is  a  curious  state. 

I  am  glad  to  hear  of  the  71.  He  who  reaches  that  age  in  a  good 
state  may  live  a  long  time,  and  I  hope  that  you  will.  This  spring  a 
cousin  of  mine,  who  holds  the  keys  of  every  ship  in  Liverpool,  called 
on  me.  He  was  perfectly  straight,  active,  with  good  eyes  and  ears, 
in  fact  he  was  a  young  man,  as  I  was  when  I  was  71.  I  asked  him  his 
age  and  he  said  that  he  was  81.  I  never  saw  such  a  man  before. 


64  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 

I  ought  to  tell  you  that  my  eyesight  is  nearly  perfect.  I  have 
never  used  glasses;  nor  is  my  hearing  the  least  bit  impaired. 

I  am  sorry  that  Julia  has  not  been  quite  well.  These  disorders  are 
the  consequence  of  overwork.  Present  to  her  my  best  wishes  and 
Mrs.  Lawrence's.  We  retain  a  very  pleasant  remembrance  of  her 
visit.  Thanks  for  the  newspaper.  I  can  write  no  more.  This  is  a 
great  effort  for  me.  I  am  now  in  my  79th  year  and  your  ever  faith- 
ful and  sincere  friend, 

GEORGE  LONG. 

Wed.  19th  of  March,  1879. 
My  dear  friend: 

I  am  dying  slowly  and  painfully,  my  last  letter  is  this,  in  which  I 
assure  you  of  my  remembrance  as  long  as  the  poor  body  shall  en- 
dure. My  best  wishes  to  all  your  family. 

Your  faithful  friend, 

GEORGE  LONG. 

It  was  indeed  the  last  letter  from  his  hand,  and  was  soon 
followed  by  the  black-bordered  card  announcing  the  end: 


Professor  George  Long 
Late  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 

Born  Nov.  4,  1800. 

Died  at  Portfield,  Chichester 

August   10,   1879. 


During  the  last  decade  and  a  half  of  his  life  following  the 
outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  in  America,  George  Long  began  to 
reef  the  wide-flung  sails  of  his  vigorous  and  discursive  genius, 
and  to  concentrate  his  powers  on  single  tasks  at  a  time,  and 
those,  too,  confined  more  narrowly  to  his  own  special  scientific 
field  of  classical  philology.  In  this  last  lap  of  his  ever-active 


LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  I/)NG  65 

career  the  fundamental  genius  and  temperament  of  the  man  as- 
serted their  full  sway  to  the  exclusion  of  everything  else.  The 
essential  character  of  George  Long's  genius  was  concrete  and 
practical:  hence  his  abiding  leaning  towards  the  historical  and 
ethical  aspects  of  human  life.  Roman  history  and  Roman  phil- 
osophy were  the  natural  scientific  interests  of  his  typical  Eng- 
lish temperament,  just  as  we  have  seen  that  Caesar,  Marcus 
Aurelius,  and  Lee  were  the  characteristic  foci  of  his  spiritual 
gaze. 

This  closing  period  of  our  great  scholar's  life  opens  with  the 
publication  of  "An  Old  Man's  Thoughts  about  Many  Things," 
1862,  8vo.,  the  style  of  which  seemed  to  his  old  pupils  to  re- 
call his  "vigorous,  discursive  and  pungent,  but  always  profitable 
conversation,"  and  which  reappeared  in  1872  in  a  second  edi- 
tion. The  same  year,  1862,  saw  the  first  edition  of  his  "Med- 
itations of  Marcus  Aurelius,"  which  was  republished  in  1869, 
and  again  just  before  his  death  in  1879.  It  was  to  the  second 
edition  that  he  prefaced  the  memorable  "Note"  in  honor  of 
General  Lee,  which  for  noble  simplicity  and  calm  dignity  is  un- 
surpassed in  English  literature  and  uniquely  worthy  of  its  lofty 
theme.  In  1864  Long  began  the  publication  of  his  "Decline  of 
the  Roman  Republic,"  a  work  on  which  he  was  continuously  oc- 
cupied for  twelve  years,  and  which  he  completed  in  1874.  We 
have  already  followed  Matthew  Arnold's  handsome  critique  of 
Long's  style  and  method  of  historical  treatment,  as  quoted  by 
Dr.  Adams  in  his  Jefferson  and  the  University  of  Virginia.  It 
was  in  1871  that  Long  retired  to  Portfield,  Chichester,  and  in 
1873  that  Mr.  Gladstone  conferred  a  public  pension  of  100£ 
a  year  upon  him  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  The  last  product  of 
his  indefatigable  pen  was  his  "Discourses  of  Epictetus,  with  the 
Encheiridion  and  fragments,"  1877,  8vo.,  his  death  occurring  two 
years  later  in  1879. 


66  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  LONG 

lustum  et  tenacem  propositi  virum 
Non  civium  ardor  prava  iubentium 
Non  voltus  instantis  tyranni 
Mente  quatit  solida  neque  Auster 

Dux  inquieti  turbidus  Hadriae 
Nee  fulminantis  magna  manus  lovis 
Si  fractus  inlabatur  orbis 
Impavidum  ferient  ruinae. 


The  Michie  Company,  Printers 
Charlottesville,  Va. 


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